Minors and Certificates
The Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences offers a variety of minors and academic certificates that complement our undergraduate majors by providing additional concentration in specific subject matter. As with our undergraduate majors, our minors provide the opportunity to learn in some of the world's best outdoor classrooms, including the McCall Field Campus, 10,000+ acres of Experimental Forests, Rinker Rock Creek Ranch, and the Taylor Wilderness Research Station in the heart of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
Below are the various minors and certificates offered under the Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences.
A minor in Forest Operations helps prepare you for a career focused on providing timber and other sustainable forest products for society. With a strong emphasis on business and timber harvesting, the Forest Operations minor provides additional opportunities to learn how to manage working forests while maximizing economic benefits. This minor provides additional opportunities for hands-on, field-based educational experiences at the University of Idaho Experimental Forest and beyond. This minor has students prepare stand silviculture prescriptions and plan timber management activities that implement those prescriptions and prepares students for careers managing working forests on both private and public lands.
Students take courses specific to forest operations, forest roads, cable systems, and renewable material properties and products. A total of 18 credits are required for this minor.
A minor in Forest Resources provides additional training focused on the variety of sustainable products provided by forest ecosystems. This minor emphasizes coursework in forest ecology, management, restoration, watersheds, and natural resource policy, and provides students with opportunities to gain practical, hands-on experience by studying at the U of I Experimental Forest and Pitkin Forest Nursery. Students enrolling in the minor prepare to work with both private and public organizations in working forests around the world to solve problems, manage land and restore ecosystems.
A total of 18 credits are required for this minor.
Our minor in Fire Ecology and Management emphasizes “hands-on” learning to provide you an understanding of fire’s holistic role in the environment and develop the understanding and skills to help manage complex problems associated with fire-dependent forests and rangelands, including the wildland-urban interface.
Students seeking a minor in Fire Ecology and Management benefit from access to the nearby U of I Experimental Forest, where you can actively participate in prescribed burning classes and explore fire management in a real-world setting. Students also take courses which have access to the Idaho Fire Institute of Research and Education (IFIRE) – the only university-housed wildfire combustion laboratory in the United States.
A minor in Rangeland Ecology and Management prepares you to manage, conserve, and restore these diverse environments, which include grasslands, shrublands, woodlands and deserts. This minor provides a solid understanding of important ecosystem processes that shape rangelands, as well as tools to help manage and restore these critical working landscapes across the West.
This minor is highly customizable to allow students to focus their course work in specific fields, such as land and livestock management, wildlife habitat, or restoration ecology. Courses must total 18 credits for a minor in Rangeland Ecology and Management.
A minor in Renewable Materials combines engineering, architecture, chemistry, business, biology and more to help prepare you for a career in the fast-growing field of renewable materials and bioenergy systems. Influence future building techniques by developing new products, methods, and practices by taking advantage of hands-on courses in a variety of areas such as biofuel creation from wood waste, development of plastic-enhanced wood for construction, and innovative uses of small-diameter trees.
A minor in Renewable Materials prepares students to work in the renewable materials and wood products industry; a $3 billion industry in Idaho. The curriculum is highly customizable, as 9 of the 18 credits required for the minor can be selected amongst numerous Renewable Materials electives.
Many of the issues facing our natural resources and environment can be resolved by restoring health, sustainability, and services of ecosystems that have been degraded by human activities. Restoration Ecology is the science that supports the practice of restoration, and is the foundation of any successful ecosystem restoration project.
Enrolling in the Restoration Ecology certificate provides you a background in basic ecological principles within the context of restoration. Specifically, the certificate provides a strong understanding of plant and soil ecology and an overview of the tools to manage and restore disturbed and degraded rangeland and forest ecosystems.
The certificate can be completed on campus or online, requiring a total of 16 credits.