The single most important area of ethnobotany research today involves the application of botanical, ecological, and ethnographic research methods to address practical questions about human community interactions with ecosystems, endangered species, cultural landscapes, and conservation areas. Ethnobiology as a scientific background is in demand for entry level researchers and resource managers working in government agencies (e.g., National Park Services, Natural Resource Management Agencies) and private resource management and research units (e.g., The Nature Conservancy).  In addition, a large number of non-profit community organizations are interested in using the skills of ethnobiologists for evaluation of development project alternatives, conservation of traditional knowledge and practices, and restoration of cultural landscapes.

This course will provide a learning environment, specific knowledge, methods, and experience needed for students to qualify for practical positions as described above. This course will also train students who are planning to conduct ethnobiological field research so that they are able to more rapidly and effectively move through their period of graduate study.

Course Structure: This course is expected to be taken twice. Once in each of two different summer sessions. The course will have a limit of 10 first year students and 10 second year students each as a cohort.

Work efforts will be coordinated to promote group bonding and to give each cohort a distinct “identity.” We expect that the Field School will promote long-term collaborations based on the deep friendships built during the shared experiences.

The Field School will rotate through a series of sites so that students will experience at least two different locations on two different islands during their two years of participation.

Course Content: Students will focus on learning data collection skills and learn the processes of developing and managing research activities. This includes project or experimental design, establishing ecological transects and plots, measuring plant and ecosystem parameters, gathering human community data, and conducting restoration experiments. When possible, activities will include visiting projects that are underway and which serve as models of activities in contemporary conservation ethnobiology. Students will organize and analyze data as it is collected, making corrections to sampling protocols as needed. They will prepare written reports and visual presentations on the projects conducted during the field school training. Since students will be expected to take the course twice, the location and specific projects will change each year allowing the content information being learned to change with each time it is taken although the expected skills to be mastered will remain the same. Students taking the course for the second time will be expected to move more quickly through the process of mastering skills and move more quickly into the process of conducting research and analyzing data.