Policy and Administration Technical Option

Administered by the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources

The Policy and Administration Option develops knowledge and skills about policy processes and sciences, public and private organizations, natural resource law and policy, public governance and involvement, and their applications to natural resource management and conservation.

Job Opportunities

Persons graduating from this discipline have obtained employment with state and federal natural resource agencies, environmental consulting firms, nongovernment conservation organizations, international development organizations, forestry management organizations, local, county, and state planning agencies, sustainable farms, private firms, and other organizations.  

Faculty Contacts

Robert Abt, bob_abt@ncsu.edu, 919.515.7791
Gary Blank, gary_blank@ncsu.edu, 919.515.7566
Frederick Cubbage, fred_cubbage@ncsu.edu, 919.515.7789
Erin Sills, erin_sills@ncsu.edu, 919.515.7784
Toddi Steelman, toddi_steelman@ncsu.edu, 919.513.0408
Sarah Warren, sarah_warren@ncsu.edu, (919.515.7996
Kathi Beratan kkberata@ncsu.edu, 919.513.7637

Prerequisites

A Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree is the only prerequisites required.

Master of Natural Resources Core Curriculum (required)

Technical Option Core Curriculum

Students are required to take (1) three courses in public administration, environmental law, or policy, and (2) one course in economics or management. Courses may be taken from the list below, or others may used as substitutes with approval of the advising committee.

Take 3 courses, or 9 credit hours, from the list below:

Technical Option Electives

See above for possible courses in Policy and Administration.

Courses that are acceptable in resource economics or management are listed below, or others may be taken with permission of the advising committee..

Additional Courses/Requirements

• NR 695 Master’s Thesis Research or
  NR 693 Master’s Supervised Research (up to 6 credit hours)

Additional courses as specified by the student’s advisory committee

Students who do not have a background in natural resources or a related field may be required to take up to 12 credit hours of undergraduate course work that cannot be counted towards the MNR degree program, but this is seldom required.

Additional courses as specified by the student’s advisory committee.

Students who do not have a background in natural resources or a related field may be required to take up to 12 credit hours of undergraduate course work that cannot be counted towards the MNR degree program.

Total Credit Hours:  36 Credit Hours

Recent Project Titles

• Spatial distribution variables correlated with collaborative natural resource projects: Natural Resource Leadership Institute 1995-2004
• Industrial ecology as a necessary precursor to managing beyond compliance in the US pulp and paper industry - a case study
• Evaluation and analysis of NC State agencies cooperative efforts in forest management and biodiversity protection
• Outreach to limited resource forest landowners: extension innovation for low literacy audiences
• Potential implications of increased ecotourism development in southern Belize
• Development of "green growth": a conservation planning training module for urban planners in North Carolina
• Environmental sustainability  "inreach": how the campus community informs itself about environmental issues
• Is the common interest served: NEPA in Swain County, North Carolina
• State wetlands restoration program components and strategies: a comparative analysis with recommendations for North Carolina
• Conservation strategy for Buffalo Creek
• The Sustainable Sandhills Initiative: a comparative analysis of North Carolina to the Sandhills Region
• Community response to wildfire risk in Colorado - innovations and lessons learned
• A land management plan proposal for Bald Head Island Conservancy's Maritime Forest Sanctuary
• Evaluating the effects of changes within the Department of the Army, Section 404 Permitting Program: A study of wetland and stream impacts authorized by the Wilmington district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Generation of optimal transportation corridor paths using GIS weighted distance functions and a cost model based on NC-CREWS
• Expert estimates of climate change impacts on southern Appalachian coldwater fisheries
• Development of a trails master plan for DuPont State Forest
• State Wetlands Restoration Program Component and Strategies: A Comparative Analysis with Recommendations for North Carolina (Thesis)
• A Web-Based Interactive Environmental Education Site for the Schenck Forest
• Threatened and Endangered Species Protection in the United States
• Landscape Characteristics and North Carolina Stream Life: A Multiple-Scale Ecological Risk Assessment of Nonpoint Source Pollution (Thesis)
• GIS Analysis of Trails System for Land Use Planning for the Dupont State Forest
• Costs of Forest Certification on the Southern Center for Sustainable Forests Lands
• Hydrological Modeling of Water Flows and Runoffs in the Town of Nags Head 
• Analyses of Land Use and Environmental Protection Associated with Rice Production around Palo Verde, Costa Rica (Thesis)
• Long Term Sustainability of Bloodroot Supply in Western North Carolina (Thesis)

Links / Additional Information

More information about the Policy and Administration Option: http://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/grads/TechOpPolicyAdmin.htm

Natural Resource and Policy Faculty:

http://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/natresec/index.html

See the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources site for Individual Faculty web pages:

http://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/direct/index.html