Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources Department Renamed Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation

Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources Department Renamed Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation

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The Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources announced that its Department of Forestry as changed its name to the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation <http://www.forestry.vt.edu/> (http://www.forestry.vt.edu/) to better reflect the breadth and depth of the many natural resource programs offered.

"The past two decades have brought a variety of changes to both the practice and profession of forestry in Virginia, the United States, and the world," explained Mike Kelly, dean of the college. These changes have paralleled and have been driven in part by the increasing demands for forest fiber, timber products, recreation amenities, wood-based fuel, clean water, biodiversity, and climate stabilization.

Forest industry and public land management agencies are restructuring and aligning their activities to improve forest sustainability. "This has made the need for leadership from Virginia Techs Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, the commonwealths flagship for forestry research, education, and outreach, greater than ever before," elaborated Janaki Alavalapati, who became department head last fall.

In a puzzling dynamic, while the profession is undergoing change, undergraduate enrollments in forest resource programs across the country have been steady to declining. To address the growing need for natural resource managers and to reverse the trend, schools are realigning, renaming, modifying curriculum, and intensifying recruitment efforts.

"To position ourselves in creating the next generation of professionals and to better reflect and promote our activities, we are exploring a series of strategies," said Alavalapati. "We are making our curriculum more flexible and have established partnerships with community colleges so that students can more easily transfer to our program. We are developing new majors and options and revising existing ones, as well as improving our marketing efforts, along with renaming the department."

The College of Natural Resources <http://www.cnr.vt.edu/>  (http://www.cnr.vt.edu/) at Virginia Tech consistently ranks among the top three programs of its kind in the nation. Faculty members stress both the technical and human elements of natural resources and instill in students a sense of stewardship and land-use ethics. Areas of studies include environmental resource management, fisheries and wildlife sciences, forestry, geospatial and environmental analysis, natural resource recreation, urban forestry, wood science and forest products, geography, and international development. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.

CONTACT:
Lynn Davis
(540) 231-6157
davisl@vt.edu <mailto:davisl@vt.edu>

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