University of Washington SAF Accreditation Review, 2006
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Click here to download a PDF of the entire self-evaluation
Standard 1: Forestry Program Mission, Goals, and Objectives
Development of the Forestry Program within the University
The mission of the University of Washington is to create, preserve, and disseminate
knowledge; to develop and protect an intellectual environment conducive to development
and free exchange of ideas and the mastery of academic and professional skills;
and to provide academic leadership in the arts, sciences, and professions through
excellence in teaching and research. The University of Washington offers undergraduate,
graduate, and professional education, develops knowledge through research, and
extends knowledge through continuing education and numerous public services
to the citizens of Washington State and the region.
As the leading research and teaching university in the Pacific Northwest,
the University of Washington offers a broad array of programs in the arts and
sciences and a number of professional fields. The University is committed to
maintaining basic strengths in all of its schools and colleges and strives for
excellence in all of its programs.
As one of the oldest professional colleges in the University, the College of
Forest Resources has long helped the University fulfill its purposes through
programs in undergraduate and graduate education, research and continuing education.
Educational and research programs in the College of Forest Resources have evolved in response to the development of the University and the changing needs of forestry professionals and specialized knowledge in the Pacific Northwest. These programs have recently been reshaped to meet existing and anticipated demands for professional knowledge and practitioners. When the College of Forest Resources was founded in 1907, the forests of the Northwest seemed limitless and long-term management of resources was only beginning to be recognized by institutions of higher education. The Northwest had become the center of the lumber producing industry, and Washington led the nation in lumber production by 1910. Forestry education at the University of Washington was begun in response to the growing recognition of the need to conserve forests and provide for future needs.
In 1894, predating the College, the University offered a forestry course on the biological aspects of forests in the Department of Natural Sciences, and soon followed with a two-quarter course sequence in the Department of Terrestrial Physics and Geography. By 1897, Professor Edward S. Meany, later to become University President, had been appointed as “Lecturer in Forestry.” In 1901, forestry was listed as a department in the College of Liberal Arts. In 1905, Professor Meany initiated a course for public school teachers in recognition of the need for public outreach that has grown steadily over the years.
On September 18, 1907, the School of Forestry opened with eight freshman and two graduate students. The formal graduate program began when a Master of Science in Forestry degree was approved for the 1908-1909 academic year. A Doctor of Philosophy for graduate students studying forestry was approved in 1933, and the first Ph.D. in Forestry was awarded in 1936. The name was changed from the School of Forestry to the College of Forest Resources in 1967.
During the early years of the College, the purposes of the University and the needs of the region were met by grouping professional interests into Forest Management, Forest (logging) Engineering, and Forest Products. This breadth of programs continued until the 1960s, and addressed the management of land and related resources, the operations of producing products from the forest, and the conversion of timber into the growing variety of products useful to society.
Over the last 30 years the College has reshaped its programs to provide professional leadership, knowledge, and practical expertise for addressing the changing needs of Washington State and the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, the College adapted its programs to address problems in the international realm of forest products, forest conservation, and development. Forests remain as important to the state as they were when the College was founded. Approximately half of the state’s area, or twenty-one million acres, is classified as forest land. Sixteen million acres are commercial forests. These lands support a large industry contributing $10 billion or 18 percent of Washington’s annual business income and more than 50,000 direct and 150,000 indirect jobs. Wood production is second only to aerospace in its economic significance to the state.
Regional population growth, when coupled with increasing regional and national concern over environmental protection, has made national parks, wilderness, natural areas, and preserves important parts of forest management in the Pacific Northwest. Currently, forest lands in general provide a multitude of products and services in addition to wood. Water, fisheries, wildlife, and recreation opportunities, together with additional amenity and scientific values, are highly valued by society as a whole. Collectively, these are the most significant values of forests for many of the state’s residents, and rival timber in their contribution to the economy—making the uses of forests a central feature of Northwest lifestyles and creating substantial and protracted political conflict over forest land use and management. The demands for broader environmental services and protection will continue to intensify in the years ahead as the population of the Pacific Northwest grows and continues to urbanize, and as more land is converted from forests to other uses. The need for professionals capable of addressing these problems will increase as we move into the future.
The growing population will also create new demands on higher education. After a decade of decline, the college-age population (18 to 24 years old) is projected to increase by 19% from 2005 to 2009. Higher education enrollment is predicted to increase 14% over the same time period, or from 14.4 to 16.3 million . This new population of college graduates will find the greatest job opportunities in the fast growing occupations of computer science (computer engineers, data base administrators, etc.), physical therapy, occupational therapy, and secondary school teaching .
Unfortunately, these same graduates will encounter more limited employment opportunities in natural resources. Employment for foresters and conservation scientists is expected to grow only as fast as the average for all occupations through the year 2006. This growth will be concentrated in state and local governments due to increasing emphasis on environmentally-sound development. Research and testing firms that employ conservation scientists are expected to continue hiring, though at a slower rate than in the last decade. Fewer opportunities will exist in the Federal Government, partly due to budgetary constraints.
The University of Washington and Its Growth
The college-age population growth that is occurring at the national and state
level is also occurring in Puget Sound. Predicted population increase and enrollment
demands will create a larger and more diverse student body, spread across a
University of Washington that grew from one to three campuses in the 1990s.
The University will attempt to provide access to an additional 20,691 students
by 2010, distributed roughly equally over the three campuses: Seattle (UWS),
Tacoma (UWT), and Bothell (UWB). Total enrollment will rise from 32,919 AAFTEs
(Annual Average Full-Time Equivalents) to 52,500; enrollment at the Seattle
campus will rise from 31,297 AAFTEs to 39,000.
The expansion of the UWT and UWB campuses will require addressing curricular development with the aim of complementing, rather than competing with, programs between campuses. At UWB, the Science, Technology, and Environment concentration currently has two full-time and four shared or part-time faculty. Plans are underway at UWB to offer a B.S. degree in Environmental Science, which would replace the current B.A. degree. Between four or five new faculty positions will be added over the next five years. Larger plans are being discussed at UWT, which currently has 4 full-time environmental science faculty and tentative plans to hire 17 faculty in interdisciplinary sciences over the next 10 years. On the Seattle campus, the demise of the Institute of Environmental Studies in the early 1990s, and the emergence of the Program on the Environment (POE) in the late 1990s, broadened the environmental ties across campus and should encourage more interdisciplinary education within and between the UW campuses.
Forestry Curricula in the 1990s at the College of Forest Resources
Within this setting, the College of Forest Resources fulfills the University’s
mission by educating future managers and scientists and by conducting research
in the many biological, physical, economic, and human dimensions of forest management
and protection. The College is also responsible for updating practicing managers
and scientists on the latest issues and technology, and developing practical
knowledge about trees, fish, water, wildlife, recreation, and their relationships.
In recent years, the College has also assumed responsibility for urban forest
resource issues and opportunities and related urban and environmental horticulture
problems.
In response to a changing environment and student population, the College has diversified more in the 1990s than in any other decade of the 20th century. In the mid-1980s, there were four undergraduate curricula: Pulp and Paper Science, Wood Technology, Logging Engineering, and Forest Resources Management. Over the next decade, Wood Technology was placed on hold due to a lack of majors, and the others changed their names: Pulp and Paper Science to Paper Science and Engineering, Logging Engineering to Forest Engineering, and Forest Resource Management to Forest Management. Three new undergraduate curricula emerged: Wildlife Science (formerly an undergraduate program but eliminated due to a budget cut in 1981), Conservation of Wildland Resources, and Urban Horticulture and Forestry. In 1999, Urban Horticulture and Forestry was revised to Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry, and a new curriculum, Sustainable Resource Science was adopted.
In 1996, the College was one of the first at the University to initiate a strategic planning process; it continues at present. A College mission has been defined, within which its undergraduate curricula are nested:
The College of Forest Resources is dedicated to generating and disseminating knowledge for the stewardship of natural and managed environments and the sustainable use of their products and services through teaching, research, and outreach.
The associated program goal for education is to provide students with a premier
educational and training experience in integrated natural resource management,
utilization, and environmental sciences and stewardship. Current themes in the
College are “ecosystem management in an urbanizing world,” and “sustainable
forest enterprises.” A 1999 College retreat resulted in a list of desired
outcomes for graduates of the College of Forest Resources:
• understanding sustainability/scarcity
• ethics/values
• reasoning and communication skills
• creativity/innovation
• fundamental knowledge
• system design
• project management
• tradeoffs
• interface linkages in science/policy
• ability to function on interdisciplinary teams
Forestry at the College of Forest Resources in the New Millennium
The University began to more closely scrutinize the undergraduate programs within
the College early in the first decade of the new millennium. Our students were
taking longer to complete their degrees, some of the curricula were not successful
in attracting students, and class sizes were small. Other programs on campus
were more flexible and offered much of the same educational opportunities (although
more in an elective sense than through a required set of courses).
The greater flexibility under the Arts and Sciences programs (Botany, Zoology, and POE, for example) drew some students interested in natural resources issues but wishing to have greater efficiency and control of their program of study (Figure 1). The College curricula most affected were Forest Management, Conservation of Wildland Resources, Wildlife Science, and Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry. The reality is that the diverse offerings in engineering and the natural sciences outside of the College have continued to attract students at levels equal to or greater than allied programs within the College (Figure 2). This helped explain why College students had such long time-to-degree programs at the University (Figure 3). The long time-to-degree at the College was reflected in the low Graduation Efficiency Indices for many programs (Figure 3). This index is a measure of the number of extra credits students acquire in addition to the program’s major requirements (after accounting for transfer credits).
In 2000, the faculty began a reassessment of the undergraduate curricula with
a faculty-produced “Futures Report.” Subsequent planning committees
involving students, staff, and faculty produced a plan to condense the seven
undergraduate curricula to two: Paper Science and Engineering (PSE), and Environmental
Science and Resource Management (ESRM). In 2004, the College completed its University
review process, known as RCEP (Reduction, Consolidation, and Elimination of
Programs), and these two curricula are the only ones into which new undergraduate
students are being admitted.
The ESRM curriculum is the closest of the College’s curricula to the recently eliminated (and currently SAF-accredited) Forest Management curriculum. Although students graduating with the ESRM degree will qualify for Federal Civil Service status as Forester, the College believes that the new ESRM program will not be suitable for SAF accreditation. This intent was communicated to SAF Associate Director Terrance Clark by Dean Bruce Bare on April 27, 2004. The new curriculum includes:
Bachelor of Science in Environmental
Science and Resource Management
Introductory Course Requirements
Written Communication: 12 credits
English 131 (5) English Composition
TC 231 (5) Technical Writing
TC 333 (4) Advanced Technical Writing
Visual Literary & Performing Arts: 10 credits
Communication 220 (5) Introduction to Public Speaking
Visual Literary and Performing Arts (5) (from VLPA list)
Biology and Soils (13-14 credits)
Biology 161 (5) General Biology
Biology 162 (5) General Biology
ESC 210 (4) Introductory Soils
Chemistry (10 credits)
Chemistry 120 (5) Principles of Chemistry
Chemistry 220 (5) Introduction to Organic Chemistry
Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning (20 credits)
QSCI 291 (5) Analysis for Biologists I (or Math 124 or 144)
QSCI 292 (5) Analysis for Biologists II (or Math 125-145)
QSCI 381 (5) Introduction to Probability and Statistics (or equivalent)
CFR 250 (5) Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Major Course Requirements
Core Courses (20 credits)
CFR 301 (5) Maintaining Nature in an Urban and Urbanizing World
CFR 302 (5) Sustainability in Production Lands
CFR 303 (5) Preserving and Conserving Wildlands
CFR 304 (5) Environmental and Resources Assessment
Restricted Electives (35 credits)
35 Credits in CFR courses 300 and greater
15 credits 400 or greater
Free Electives (59-60 credits)
We believe that the new ESRM curriculum, and similar programs from other universities, constitute an excellent preparation for a SAF-accredited Master of Forest Resources program, the degree program we are now proposing for accreditation.
Master of Forest Resources Program Goals
The goals of our Master of Forest Resources program are to educate, train, and
prepare graduate professionals in forest land management who can serve public
agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the industrial and non-industrial
private sector. This will be accomplished by screening applicants so that admission
is limited to those individuals who have adequate natural resources undergraduate
preparation, and by offering a 45-credit professional Master’s degree.
The degree program is designed to create:
• a curriculum that integrates knowledge and skills from technical disciplines with those from policy and management subjects in ways suitable for professional leadership in the public, nongovernmental, and private sector;
• a collaborative and interdisciplinary learning environment that develops team approaches, skills, and experience needed for complex decision-making; and
• future managers capable of addressing the complex issues facing society and industry in the forest resources arena.
The Master of Forest Resources (Forest Management) degree program was designed around the Society of American Foresters’ Accreditation Standards. The College is committed to continue providing an accredited degree program to its students and being a leader in forest and natural resource management in Washington and throughout the world.
College of Forest Resources Self-Evaluation
As evident by the curricula changes undergone by the College since its inception, the College of Forest Resources is adept at evaluating and revising academic and research programs to meet the needs of the changing society and environment. The College has an ongoing strategic planning process, which reviews the programs and research areas offered through the College on an annual basis. Last year the Dean of the College, B. Bruce Bare, appointed faculty, staff, and students to an ad hoc CFR Directions Steering Committee, whose mission was to examine the goals and objectives of the College and how to recruit and retain quality students, staff, and faculty. The committee facilitates dialogue among the faculty and the rest of the College community (i.e., staff and students), and helps the College revise programs as necessary. The committee produced a final report in November 2005, which is provided on the following pages as one example of the outcome of an in-house assessment of the College’s goals and vision.