Western Washington University's College of the Environment - Salish Sea Region program's Ecological Restoration Certificate provides an additional level of accredited skillsets for the strategic management of Western Washington's natural resources within the age of rapid climate change. The program combines academic coursework delivered via a series of quarterly face-to-face evening courses with hands-on field-based practicum seminars that will proactively address imminent threats to our environment by restoring, conserving, and designing methods for adaptive management at a watershed scale. Students will gain skills that combined both visionary ecological thinking with proficiency in current computational and field methodology. Upon successful completion of this certificate program, students will be able to:
- Design field sampling protocols and manage data to answer environmental questions
- Apply basic statistical techniques to professionally communicate environmental data
- Utilize spatial data, spatial data sources, and gain practical experience in GIS applications
- Communicate statistical information, field methods, and statistical analyses to a broader audience.
Why Consider an Ecological Restoration Certificate (Extension)?
A background in ecological restoration provides a specialty that pertains to a broad range of careers. Understanding challenges in the field of natural resources and opportunities for resiliency and carbon sequestration offers relevant skills to shape the next generation of managers and practitioners tasked to address the landscape stresses of climate change. Participants are provided a comprehensive background in a series of ecological restoration techniques, theoretical rationale for restoration, and hands-on techniques currently used in the field. The following skills and area of specialty have been derived from communication with regional land management agencies and private industry partners who are looking for employees with a range of conservation, management, and interpersonal skills.