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Politics 309: Environment and Politics in the New West

This seminar explores the changing political landscape of the American West, with emphasis on changing environmental values and on conflicts over natural resource policy. Amid dramatic social, economic, and demographic changes, the West is at war with itself over conflicting claims to public resources such as water, pasture, minerals, timber, fresh air, and recreation. What are the causes of these conflicts, and what kinds of approaches will be necessary to address them? For Fall 2004, available only to students accepted to Semester in the West program. Brick

Distribution Area: Social Science

Biology 171: Special Topics in Biology for Non-Majors: Ecology of the American West

This course will explore the adaptations and relationships of organisms to their abiotic and biotic environments, with a focus on the varied ecosystems of the Hells Canyon region of northeastern Oregon and the high desert ecosystems of northern New Mexico. Particularly, we hope you will come to understand the forces impacting, and the impact of, individual organisms, as they exist over time and space, and as parts of higher levels of ecological construct including the population, community, and ecosystem. A significant proportion of this class will be spent afield quantifying vegetative associations and a selection of the fauna inhabiting those associations. The course is team-taught over two, intensive, two week periods. The first two weeks will take place in the Hells Canyon area in early September, taught by Dr. O’Brien. The second two weeks will be taught in November by Dr. Arbetan in New Mexico. Two one-hour lectures are required daily, five days per week, with an exam Friday afternoon. A three-hour laboratory is required four days per week. Laboratory sessions will consist primarily of fauna and flora identification, and ecological monitoring techniques including vegetative plot monitoring, dry pitfall monitoring, and avian transect monitoring. Your performance in this class will be evaluated using the four exams and your daily contribution to both lecture and laboratory. Offered Fall 2004, and only to students accepted to Semester in the West. Environmental studies majors may substitute this course for Biology 130 Conservation Biology, as an interdisciplinary foundation course in the sciences, for the major. O’Brien and Arbetan

Distribution Area: Science

Rhetoric and Film Studies 380A: Environmental Writing and Rhetoric in the American West

A course exploring how writers and others explain and portray the American West. Strong emphasis is placed on analyzing the character and structure of both oral and written arguments, as well as on writing in a variety of genres, including nature writing, political journalism, creative writing, and writing for interdisciplinary journals in environmental studies. We will write daily, and we will often read aloud to one another from our work. We'll discuss what we read, both published and student work, in terms of its arguments. Goals include developing a voice adaptable to multiple audiences and objectives, understanding modes of argument and effectiveness of style, learning to meet deadlines, sending dispatches, reading aloud, and moving writing from the classroom to publication. Offered Fall 2004, and only to students accepted to Semester in the West. The course will be taught in the eastern Sierra Nevada region of California, and in southeastern Utah and the four corners area. Hoornbeek and Meloy

Distribution Area: Humanities

Environmental Studies 390: Independent Study, Places of the American West

As we travel throughout the West, we will focus on exploring the interdisciplinary dimensions of specific environmental and social issues. For example, we will spend several days in central Idaho examining proposals to re-introduce grizzly bears into the Selway-Bitterroot. Or while in the New Mexico, we will examine the conflict between Hispanic land claims and environmental plans for more comprehensive, ecosystem management. Students will pick one of the focus topics, and write a substantial research paper associated with that area. Students get credit both for participating in learning about all the focus areas and for the research paper. Offered Fall 2002, and only to students accepted to Semester in the West. Brick

Distribution Area: none.