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If you don't want to limit your out-of-doors time to days off, you might want to consider a career in recreation resources management. Do the job right and you'll enhance people's lives by helping them enjoy and better understand wild areas. You'll also help sustain our limited natural resource base.
You'll develop and use a broad range of skills and knowledge. Your stock-in-trade will be solid background in the social and biological sciences, plus a thorough understanding of human and institutional behavior.
Your major in Recreation Resources Management will open up career choices in a wide range of fields related to natural resources, public land management and private enterprise. You may work as a park ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, or a state or county park system. You might end up on the staff of a nonprofit conservation organization. You could work in the private recreation industry—maybe even start your own ecotourism business.
The UW-Madison's undergraduate major in Recreation Resources Management is an interdisciplinary program coordinated by the School of Natural Resources in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Although the program is based in the Department of Forest Ecology and Management, students learn from faculty in many departments. Students in the program take courses in communication, rural sociology, business, forestry, wildlife ecology, soil science and environmental studies, as well as the liberal arts.
Graduates of this program are well-prepared for professional opportunities. Your degree and your strong foundation in the natural and social sciences will qualify you for a variety of resource management jobs in local, state and federal agencies as well as private firms.
If you want to learn about recreation resources management, don't plan on spending all of your time in the classroom. Besides field trips and independent study, you will serve in an internship for at least one semester or summer. During this time you will work directly with a field agent or supervisor in a program or project located anywhere from an inner city site to a remote wilderness area. This on-the-job training will give you valuable professional experience in dealing with issues ranging from personnel, budget, maintenance and planning to resource managment.
There are over 500 students in the Biology Major, about half in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the other half in the College of Letters and Science. Because biology encompasses such a wide range of topics, biology students can be found in buildings throughout campus.
The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences offers many scholarships that are granted based on academic performance, need or extracurricular activities. For more information on scholarships, loans and work-study programs contact the UW-Madison Office of Financial Services.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an AA/EEO institution. University policies create additional protection that prohibits harassment on the basis of cultural background and ethnicity. Inquires concerning these policies may be directed to the appropriate campus admitting or employing unit or to the Equity and Diversity Resource Center, 179-A, Bascom Hall, (608) 263-2378, TTY (608) 263-2473.