The Evolution of Programs
The College of Natural Resources began in 1909 as the Department of Forestry in the College of Agriculture. Considered something of a fad at the time, the fledgling department began life with one professor and 11 students. That first professor, Charles Houston Shattuck, was also first department head. He created the university’s Shattuck Arboretum. The first class of Idaho foresters (three members strong) graduated in 1911.
As the years passed, the college assumed broader duties and extended its responsibilities. Curricula in range management, forest products, wildlife, fisheries, and wildland recreation management (now resource recreation and tourism) joined the original forestry curriculum.
In response to those extended responsibilities, the college underwent a series of name changes:
Today, CNR’s faculty members, many of them among the most respected in their fields, address a broad spectrum of renewable natural resource concerns, both in their teaching and in their research. The college houses three departments under one roof: the Department of Conservation Social Sciences, the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, and the Department of Forest Ecology and Biogeosciences. The College of Natural Resources will soon celebrate 100 years of forestry education that over time branched into a diverse natural resource college presently comprised of
Members of the Class of 2009 join their predecessors—now colleagues—in the enormously complex, and important task of sustaining the world’s natural resources. In time, as CNR alumni past, they will assume national and international leadership as resource managers, scientists, teachers and in many other related professions.
As the years passed, the college assumed broader duties and extended its responsibilities. Curricula in range management, forest products, wildlife, fisheries, and wildland recreation management (now resource recreation and tourism) joined the original forestry curriculum.
In response to those extended responsibilities, the college underwent a series of name changes:
- In 1917, the Department of Forestry became the School of Forestry;
- In 1953 the School of Forestry became the College of Forestry;
- In 1963, it became the College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Range Sciences;
- In 2000, we became the College of Natural Resources.
Today, CNR’s faculty members, many of them among the most respected in their fields, address a broad spectrum of renewable natural resource concerns, both in their teaching and in their research. The college houses three departments under one roof: the Department of Conservation Social Sciences, the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, and the Department of Forest Ecology and Biogeosciences. The College of Natural Resources will soon celebrate 100 years of forestry education that over time branched into a diverse natural resource college presently comprised of
- Eight undergraduate majors
- Two graduate programs
- Three certificate programs
- 58 faculty
- 90 staff
Members of the Class of 2009 join their predecessors—now colleagues—in the enormously complex, and important task of sustaining the world’s natural resources. In time, as CNR alumni past, they will assume national and international leadership as resource managers, scientists, teachers and in many other related professions.