Intro to Natural Resource Management (ENV217) Human communities and economies are dependent on a wide range of natural resources some of which are obvious and tangible - such as water, forest products, and wildlife. Other natural resources are equally important but less obvious or tangible including air, soil, and energy. Managing these natural resources involves a diverse array of stakeholders and complex decision making requiring us to incorporate values and science into objectives when developing conservation plans and actions. This course provides an introduction to structured decision making, systems thinking, incorporating uncertainty, valuing information, identifying and working with stakeholders, risk assessment, adaptive management, conservation planning, climate change adaptation, and scenario planning.
Photo: Dr. Alex Gonyaw, Senior Fisheries Biologist, Klamath Tribes, speaks to the class about fish conservation and management on Upper Klamath Lake.
Fire Ecology (BIO452/552) Wildland fire is on critical issue across communities of the western U.S. right now. It is a complex issue that integrates a wide range of challenges from unwanted destruction of valuable natural resources to the critical positive ecological role of fire in forests, rangeland and other ecosystems and habitats. Manageming wildland fire has become even more complicated over the past several decades with expanding wildland-urban and rural interface and the use of prescribed fire as a management tool. The primary goal of this course is to provide and practice fundamental knowledge, comprehension and understanding, practice and application of wildland fire principles, concepts, and issues in ecological as well as sociopolitical contexts, as these are inextricably linked in our contemporary world! We will integrate this information into the context of natural resource management, protection, and stewardship. Photo: OSU Fire scientist Dr. Daniel Leavell joins the class on a visit to the 2015 National Creek Fire complex in Crater Lake National Park in 2015.
Coffee: Ecology & Culture (BIO307) If coffee is part of your daily ritual, it is easy to take for granted the fantastic journey that has occurred to bring you this tropical delicacy. The coffee beans that made your cup touched many hands and many lives in an epic struggle of poverty and wealth, science and politics, dreams and failure. Within a seemingly simple cup of coffee is a rich brew of disciplines, an academic flavor profile of sciences that includes history, biology, health, evolution, ecology, chemistry, agriculture, economics, anthropology, sociology, and politics. We will savor the diversity of issues that have infused the complicated relationship humans have developed with coffee over the past several centuries. During the course I draw upon my personal experience studying coffee in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica over a decade ago. My goal is for you to appreciate the complexities, struggles, and lineage of coffee from a can of Folgers to a Blue Bottle Americano and consider whether “the perfect cup” is possible or just an illusion of an overly narrow world view. We explore the world through a coffee lens using peer-reviewed literature, popular writing, podcasts, videos, movies, and other media. Plus, we sample a different fresh-brewed coffee at the beginning of each class!
Environmental Health (BIO345) We explore the complex interdisciplinary field of Environmental Health including its history and origins in the U.S. We gain an overview of related fields such as toxicology, epidemiology, environmental psychology, and environmental justice. We also explore core environmental health areas that affect our everyday lives such as air and water quality, agriculture and food systems, pollution, rural and urban development, and climate change.
During the summer of 2019 I taught a new 1-week intensive field course on the nexus of environmental health and natural resource management.
Ornithology (BIO 386) Birds have captivated our passion and fascination for thousands of years. One of the most diverse groups of vertebrates on Earth, they have colonized a staggering range of habitats. We explore the evolution of birds, feathers, and flight, their habitat ecology, mating behavior, and migration. In the field we will learn how to survey for birds by sight and sound and how to safely capture passerines with mist nets. Our class project focuses on the phenological synchrony of bird migration with flowering and leaf oout of Oregon white oak here in the Upper Klamath Basin. We go on field trips to local hotspots as well as a "Big Weekend" to the coast. Photo: Oregon Juncos are a common winter resident around Klamath Falls foraging for insects and seeds. In the spring they migrate to higher elevations and latitudes. Photo by Jherime Kellermann
Wildlife Ecology and Research(BIO 377) My goal in this course is to provide students with hands-on experience and exposure to a wide range of wildlife research methods for field studies and data analysis as well as core elements of wildlife ecology which will help prepare them for technical jobs with wildlife and natural resource agencies and graduate school programs. We cover study and sampling designs, wildlife capture techniques, marking and tracking animal movements, habitat use and selection, fragmentation and disturbance, wildlife diseases, and conservation and management issues. OIT is well placed in the upper Klamath Basin to explore a fantastic diversity of habitats and wildlife species just out our back door.
Photo: Students search for wildlife while rafting the Rogue River in southern Oregon during during a weekend field trip. Photo: Jherime Kellermann
Summer Field Ecology courses (BIO 407) Most summers I teach a week long intensive field course on a different topic. Past courses have included Crater Lake Ecology, Lepidoptera (Butterfly & Moth) Ecology, Coleoptera (Beetle) Ecology, Alpine Ecology, and Environmental Health & Natural Resource Management. This is a great opportunity to explore a topic in depth, in the field. I typically seek to engage a series of professionals to join us for a day or two. Past classes have involved biologists from OSU and the Oregon of Agriculture, the chairman of the Klamath Tribal Council, the senior fisheries biologist for the Klamath Tribes, the executive director of the Lake County Resource Initiative, and Klamath County Public Health officials along with many others. Watch the summer catalog for next years class! Photo: We had a great group for our 2019 summer course on Natural Resource management & Environmental Health
Conservation Biology (BIO 446/546) Conservation Biology is the science and practice that seeks to understand biological diversity, the factors that are threatening it, and ways we can manage, protect, and restore it. Topics we study include ecosystem services, habitat loss and fragmentation, overharvesting, invasive species, climate change vulnerability and adaptation, fire ecology and forest management, endangered species and extinction, and conservation planning and practice. We will have guest lectures by professionals from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds.
Photo: ENV student Tosha Bunnell studying wocus and their obligate host the wocus beetle for her senior project. This species is aan important cultural resource and a focus of conservation in Klamath Lake. Photo: Jherime Kellermann
Evolutionary Biology (BIO426) It is hard to imagine a more complex topic than evolution. In part driven my mutations occurring at a rate of seconds to days, we observe the results of nearly 4 billion years of evolution surrounding us every day. In this course we will explore
What evolution is
Darwin – what he got right and what he didn’t understand
Modern evolutionary synthesis / Neo-Darwinism
Mechanisms of Evolution
Measuring and analyzing evolution
“Directionality” of evolution
Epigenetics in evolution
Human evolution and how it created and shapes the human experience
The future of evolution in a new era of CRISPR-cas9 and genetic engineering and our role as a major selective force
My approach to this course and these topics will take two primary integrated approaches
“Nuts and Bolts” – As part of any course on Evolutionary Theory, science, and research we must cover to come extent the rich vocabulary, concepts, hypotheses, and methodologies that have been developed since Darwin.
“The stories” - Our knowledge of Evolution and its magnificently complex 4-billion-year legacy we seek to understand, along with the past 160 years of science since Origen of Species is also rich with stories, amazing examples of the processes and mechanisms that have formed the astounding biodiversity of our world. Therefore, I hope to convey the “Nuts-and-Bolts” through the exploration of some of the greatest stories we have been able to tell with evolutionary biological science. Much of this science helps tell our human story – where we came from, who we are, why we are unique, and where we and our fellow evolving life forms may be heading.
Scientific Reasoning & Methodology (ENV224) In this course we explore the origins of knowledge, what science really is, what it means to "do science", what questions science can really answer, and how society views science. We answer questions like "What is science?", "Who are scientists?", "How do we distinguish science from psuedoscience?". I believe there has never been a more important time for this course as people in the highest levels of our government wage war against science, scientific reasoning, and centuries of knwoledge accumulation. We explore the intricacies and reality of "the scientific method", work on developing multiple alternative hypotheses and strong predictions, understanding what "data" really is and how we can effectively visualize it, and dabble in the foundations of scientific thought and philosophy from Aristotle to Feyerbrand to David Deutsch. This is perhaps the most important class I teach during an unprecedented time in our country when science is under intense scrutiny and attack within our government and media.
Figure: Per capita CO2 emissions increase with income per person. Graphic created with Gapminder Tools http://www.gapminder.org/
Principles of Biology (BIO211 & BIO212) In this course series we make a phylogenetic exploration of the evolution and diversity of life. The origins of life, Darwinian evolution, genetics, phylogenetic relationships, inheritance, population ecology, behavioral ecology, community ecology, ecosystems, and global change are just a few of the key topics we address through readings, discussion, independent research projects, and multimedia. I teach Principles both on campus and online through our Distance Ed department.
Photo: A student removes a deer mouse from a Sherman trap for a class project at Caledonia Ranch, a private preserve near OIT.
Developmental Biology (BIO352) In this course we explore primarily vertebrate development from the point of fertilization, through embryonic and post-embryonic development to senescence. We explore the complex roles and interactions of genetics, epigenetics, proteins, bacteria and microbes, and the environment. We examine how teratogens such as endocrine disruptors are affecting the development of humans and wildlife and their relationships to cancer and other diseases. Photo: Climate change has important implications for species such as turtles whose sex ratios can be temperature dependent. Photo: Jherime Kellermann