Connecting Knowledge, Culture and Environment
Understanding today’s environmental challenges requires diverse perspectives and ways of knowing. The Indigenous Principles in Natural Resources and the Environment minor brings Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science into conversation to explore more holistic approaches to conservation, environmental stewardship and natural resource management.
What You’ll Study
You’ll explore Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western scientific approaches across conservation, wildlife and fisheries, forest resources, environmental science and agriculture while examining the relationships between people, culture and the environment.
What You’ll Take Away
You’ll gain interdisciplinary research, critical thinking and problem-solving skills to approach complex environmental and natural resource challenges with a deeper understanding of Indigenous and Western knowledge systems.
Dig Deeper
Discover how different knowledge systems can inform research, conservation and solutions to complex environmental and natural resource challenges.
Culture and the Environment
Explore how culture, identity and social values shape our relationships with land and natural resources while examining how environmental benefits and impacts are experienced across communities.
People and Natural Resources
Explore how social, economic, political and ecological factors shape natural resource decisions and how environmental change influences communities and institutions.
Navigating Environmental Conflict
Build the communication and problem-solving skills to navigate competing perspectives, manage conflict and work collaboratively toward solutions to complex natural resource challenges.
Coursework Highlights
Through hands-on coursework and applied learning experiences, you will develop the technical knowledge and practical skills needed to lead in modern agriculture.
Classes and Labs
Explore the fundamentals of forest management, from silviculture and forest protection to policy and sustainable resource use. You’ll gain hands-on experience measuring forest lands, using field instruments and interpreting maps and aerial imagery.
Explore how Indigenous cultures and knowledge systems shape relationships with land, landscapes and natural resources across different communities and environments.
Examine the relationship between climate and human societies, from how our activities influence the climate to how changing weather and climate patterns shape communities, cultures and everyday life.
Explore how cultural resources are identified, documented and protected while gaining hands-on field experience with site recording, mapping, GPS, LiDAR and drones in real-world environments.
Explore 12,000 years of Indigenous California through archaeology, environmental history and ethnography, from the earliest evidence of human communities through Spanish settlement and the persistence of Indigenous societies.
Gain hands-on experience measuring and evaluating watershed systems, from streamflow and erosion to riparian habitats and water quality, while exploring how healthy watersheds function and are managed.
Explore the Indigenous Principles in Natural Resources and the Environment Minor
Check out the course catalogue and learn more about the courses you’ll take and what you’ll learn.