SUNY-ESF’s natural resource management program has become the first program of its kind to be accredited by the Society of American Foresters.

The forestry program at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry had been accredited by the SAF since 1935. Accreditation lasts 10 years and 2015 was the decade-mark year to renew the accreditation for the forestry program. It was also an opportunity for the natural resource program to be accredited under the new standards set by the SAF.

David Newman, the chair of the Department of Forestry and Management, decided to seek accreditation for the natural resource program because the timing lined up with the accreditation of the forestry program and because “our natural resources program is a model program in what we are trying to accomplish with natural resource programs.”

In the past decade, many new programs in natural resource management and ecosystem management have emerged and evolved across the nation with no independent organization evaluating them, said Eddie Bevilacqua, the undergraduate education coordinator.

The process to get a program accredited is voluntary and requires the organization apply to write a detailed report that addresses the six areas of standards that have to be met. It must address the mission, goals and objectives of the program, the curriculum, the organization and administration of the program, faculty, students and the parent institution’s support, Newman said.

A visiting team from the SAF came to SUNY-ESF last April to evaluate the program, and then the accreditation was granted in December, Newman said.

The natural resource program at SUNY-ESF has been active since 2002 and is the largest major in the department with about 100 students. The students who are interested in this program often want to work in outdoor positions but in a management sense and are not interested in being a forester, Newman said.

The Society of American Foresters decided to establish standards for the natural resource management program since it stemmed from existing forestry programs. The organization started the process in 2008 and it established and identified the new standards in a 2012 report.

The new standards deal with making sure the curriculum included courses that ensured students had basic knowledge of ecosystems, education training and how to measure the ecosystems, how to manage ecosystems and meet specific objectives and evaluate them.

While the forestry degree focuses very heavily on forest ecosystems and how to manage them, the natural resource management program has a broader focus that allows students to specialize in their interest.

In terms of what exactly the accreditation currently means for the natural resource management program, Newman said he isn’t sure yet. For forestry, if a student wants to work in a civil service position or as a forester, they have to have graduated from an accredited program. However, for natural resource management, that norm has yet to be established.

“We expect over time as more programs become accredited, it will be seen as a necessary qualification for various types of positions, but right now there aren’t any,” said Newman.

Bevilacqua added that a future benefit of the accreditation of the program is that it will help establish that SUNY-ESF produces graduates that have a common set of skills that any employer should recognize as being important to natural resource management.

“There are a lot of agencies and organizations that may not even know how important accreditation is,” he said. “When they’re looking for new employees, they have to evaluate how good one school is over the other in terms of their curriculum and by being accredited we can guarantee that.”

Published on February 16, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Anjali: acalwis@syr.edu