ENSC 285 – Advances in River Corridor Management (1 credit, continuing)
Description: An examination of the state of the art in river corridor management, through
readings, group discussions, and individual/group projects.
Course Abstract: The primary purpose of this seminar is to read and evaluate current thinking
about river corridor management, especially as it relates to land and water use in the
northeastern states. Rivers are intimately connected to the watersheds they drain. And, of
course, rivers and watersheds are intimately intertwined with human activities. Consequently
river management can't be easily separated from environmental, social, economic, and political
interests. The objectives of this seminar are to identify how other states in the northeast manage
river resources and to explore literature describing the state of the art in river corridor
management nationally and internationally.
This seminar is open to both seniors in Natural Resources (or related fields) and graduate
students with interests in natural resources science and management. The seminar has been
designed to stand alone as a 1-credit seminar, but also connects to a 1-credit seminar that will
be offered during the winter term of 2006 that will be jointly managed by the Rubenstein School
at UVM and the Department of Environmental Conservation at the Vermont Agency of Natural
Resources.
Prerequisites: senior standing or instructor's permission as an undergraduate. All graduate
students welcome on a credit or non-credit basis.
Instructors: Breck Bowden
304 Aiken
656-2513 office
238-0920 mobile
breck.bowden@uvm.edu
Office hours: by arrangement
Contact: Murphy.MacLean@uvm.edu
656-2691 (320 Aiken)
Seminar web site: http://www.uvm.edu/~wbowden. Click on ‘Teaching’ > ‘ENSC 285’ links.
You should bookmark this site!
Meeting times: Every OTHER Monday, 2:30 to 4:25, Aiken 119
NOTE: First meeting on 29 August will start at 3:30 pm
Text: None required. Relevant reading materials will be posted on the course website and will
be brought to your attention in class.
Seminar objectives
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identify how other states in the northeast manage river resources and
explore literature describing the state of the art in river corridor management nationally
and internationally.
Seminar context
The state of Vermont is at the forefront of efforts to manage river resources through sound
ecological principles. River management in the state is the responsibility of the River
Management Program within the Water Quality division of the Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC), which is itself a part of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. River
management is a complex and rapidly evolving field and DEC wants to enhance ties with UVM,
in part to stay abreast of emerging tools and ideas in river corridor management and in part to
ensure that students with interests in this area have a good grounding in the realities of
managing these critical resources in a complex environment driven by social, economic, and
political interests as well as environmental concerns.
To this end UVM and ANR will host a joint seminar in winter 2006 to explore key topics in river
corridor management, leading ultimately to a regional symposium on this topic in late 2006. The
purpose of this seminar is to lay critical groundwork for these joint activities. Important
questions include:
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How are rivers currently managed by state agencies in the northeast?
What are the essential components of a holistic river corridor management approach?
What are the essential tools available to promote river corridor management?
The participants in this seminar will explore and refine these questions to provide a starting
place for the joint seminar in 2006.
Expectations
The seminar has been designed to stand alone as a 1-credit seminar, but also connects directly
to the 1-credit joint seminar that will be offered during the winter term of 2006 by the Rubenstein
School at UVM and the Department of Environmental Conservation at the Vermont Agency of
Natural Resources. Students who participate in this fall 2005 course are encouraged (but are
not required) to continue with the joint UVM/ANR seminar in the winter 2006 semester.
Undergraduates must register for credit in this course. Graduate students may register for
credit or may simply participate in this seminar. Everyone who attends the seminar is expected
to participate fully.
Note that the class will only meet every other week. However, it is expected that participants
will do considerable reading and preparation between class meetings.
Undergraduates will be expected to select one of the states in the northeast region and explore
– by whatever means – the way in which these states manage river resources. Students will
produce a summary report of their findings and present this summary to the class. To provide
consistency among these reports the entire seminar group will collectively develop a list of
“things we’d like know” about river management programs in neighboring states. We will
schedule 2-3 presentations for each class meeting devoted to these state summaries, allotting
~30 mins to each presentation, including discussion.
Graduate students will be expected to explore national and international literature describing
tools, concepts and approaches currently being used in river corridor management. On a
rotating basis individual graduate students will prepare a lecture on a relevant topic of their
choosing and will provide a short bibliography of the references they found on the topic. One
week prior to the scheduled lecture, graduate students should provide a PDF copy of one
reading (e.g. a journal article) relevant to the lecture topic, for the rest of the seminar
participants to discuss. On the scheduled day each graduate student participant will provide a
short preparatory lecture on the topic and then lead a discussion on the related paper. We will
cover two topic in each class, allotting ~50 mins to each lecture/discussion.
At the end of the semester, as a group, we will develop a ‘syllabus’ for what should be included
in the joint UVM/ANR seminar in 2006.
Performance Appraisal Criteria
Those taking this seminar for credit will be evaluated entirely on the basis of participation.
Participation includes making a presentation as described above and engaging fully in the biweekly discussions. This seminar is being coordinated with the AEWS graduate student
seminar and so we expect that AEWS graduate students will participate in this seminar as they
do in the regular AEWS seminar series.
For those taking the seminar for credit, grades will be assigned as follows
A’s: Attended all but one of the meetings, participated fully in discussions, and did a thorough
and professional job in chosen project demonstrating mastery of the subject and critical
examination of the material.
B’s: Attended all but two of the meetings, participated in discussions occasionally, and did a
good job in chosen project demonstrating acceptable knowledge of the subject and adequate
examination of the material.
C’s: Missed two or more of the meetings, participated in discussions only if encouraged, and
did a fair job in chosen project demonstrating uncertain knowledge of the subject and cursory
examination of the material
In a seminar like this, nobody should strive for a lower grade.