GEOG 405
CSU Chico
Nature and Restoration: Habitat Conservation, Management, and Restoration
Tentative Syllabus
Instructor:
Don L. Hankins
539 Butte Hall, phone 898-4104, email dhankins@csuchico.edu
Office Hours: Monday 2:00-2:45, 4:00-5:00 and Friday 9:00-11:00 or by
appointment
Times and Locations:
locations
3:00-3:50 Monday and 3:00-4:50 Wednesday, 201 Butte and field
Course Format:
Lecture and discussion with lab and fieldtrip activities.
Readings:
Choose one of the following to read for this class:
Anderson, M.K. 2005. Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the
Management of California’s Natural Resources. University of California Press.
Berkeley, California
Borgerhoff Mulder, M. and P. Coppolillo. 2005. Conservation: Linking Ecology,
Economics, and Culture. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey
Morrison, M.L. 2002. Wildlife Restoration: Techniques for habitat analysis and animal
monitoring. Island Press. Washington, D.C.
Wilcove, D.S. 1999. The Condor’s Shadow: The Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in
America. W.H. Freeman and Company. New York, New York
Additional readings will be provided electronically or placed on reserve.
What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a
great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man.
All things are connected.
You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our
grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich
with the lives of our kin. Teach your children that we have taught our children that the
earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. If men spit
upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.
This we know; the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we
know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are
connected.
Chief Seattle, Suquamish
Course Description:
This course will provide analysis of landscape features as wildlife and fisheries habitat, and the
key processes that create them. It will serve as an assessment of current approaches to
conservation of habitats and the methods and approaches to restore degraded habitats. All
organisms (plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, etc.) will be discussed from the population to
landscape scale. This course will include discussion of the historic drivers for habitat loss and
the tools used to offset those losses (e.g., mitigation banking and conservation planning). Key
environmental policies related to conservation, management, and restoration will be analyzed.
Course Objectives:
 Students will be versed in examples of local to international approaches to the
conservation, management, and restoration of habitat.
 Students will gain an appreciation for the variations in methodological approaches, data,
politics, and constraints to conservation, management, and restoration.
 Students will able to develop an outline and framework approaches to conserving,
managing, and restoring habitats of interest.
Assignments:
 Midterm
 Final Exam
 Lab/Field Activities (including fieldtrips)
 Service Learning (16 hours)
 Journal/Reflections
 Research Paper Outline
 Research Paper
 Oral Presentation
Grading:
Grades will be assigned on a straight scale based on the points earned for each assignment (See
example grade ranges below). This system will enable each student to earn a fair grade based
upon the percent of points earned on assignments rather than competing with others in the
class for the top grade.
 Make-up exam(s) will be given for excused absences only, and must be completed within a
week of returning to class.
 One late homework assignment will be accepted without an excused absence.
 Other late assignments will have 10 % deducted for each day they are late.
 No assignments will be accepted more than one week after the due date.
 All written assignments based on assigned readings will be due one week from the date
assigned unless otherwise advised.
 Incompletes will only be considered if most of the course requirements have been fulfilled.
 Spelling, grammar, and composition will be considered part of the grading of the
assignment.
A 93.5%
A- 90%
B+ 87%
Etc.
Midterm
Final exam
50
75
points
points
(11 %)
(16 %)
Service Learning
Journal/Reflections
Essay Outline
Research Essay
Oral Presentations
Lab/Field Assignments
50
40
20
75
50
100
points
points
points
points
points
points
(11%)
(9 %)
(4 %)
(16 %)
(11 %)
(22%)
Total
460
points
(100 %)
(Note: these values are an approximation of point allocation. Additional points for other
assignments may be assigned at instructor’s discretion)
Tentative Schedule:
INSERT CULTURAL CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION (Nabhan, TGG, Etc.)
Date
Topic
Activity
22 August
Introduction and Overview
24 August
Importance of habitat conservation,
Regional biodiversity and conservation,
management, and restoration
management, and restoration
assessment
29 August
Conservation biogeography/Landscape
ecology
31 August
Physical Processes as drivers of habitat
structure and diversity (fieldtrip)
5 September
Mechanisms of biodiversity loss and habitat
degradation
7 September
Mechanisms of biodiversity loss and habitat
degradation
10 September
TENTATIVE AFTERNOON FIELDTRIP
12 September
Environmental policy and regulation
14 September
Environmental policy and regulation
19 September
Conservation and recovery of species and their
habitats: principles of reserve design
21 September
Habitat analysis and risk assessment
tools (modeling and database use)
26 September
Habitat analysis: terrestrial
28 September
Describing and measuring biota,
habitat structure, and diversity
3 October
Habitat analysis: freshwater
5 October
Habitat analysis: marine
10 October
Monitoring
12 October
MIDTERM
17 October
Approaches to habitat mitigation, reclamation,
and restoration
19 October
Restoring uplands
24 October
Animal restoration and captive breeding
26 October
Restoring lowlands
31 October
2 November
7 November
9 November
14 November
Genetic and demographic conservation and
restoration: the role of metapopulations
Wildlife/fisheries restoration (fieldtrip)
The community approach to conservation,
management, and restoration
The community approach to conservation,
management, and restoration
The ecosystem and landscape approach to
conservation, management, and restoration
16 November
28 November
30 November
Planning mechanisms and tools
Habitat conservation planning
Cultural restoration/conservation
5 December
7 December
FINAL EXAM
Synthesis, presentations, and review
Synthesis, presentations, and review
12 December 2-3:50
Mitigation and management in
perpetuity