Environmental & Natural Resources Policy
Overview
The nation stands on the precipice of some of the greatest natural resource and environmental threats since the dawn of the modern environmental movement. These challenges range from climate change to shrinking budgets, from water quality degradation to governance debates, and from chronic environmental public health risks to policy debates. How will these problems be resolved? Who will lead the charge? Where can we find common ground?
ENRP courses cover the history, theory, and contemporary approaches for issues dealing with climate change, water quality management, drought resiliency, environmental justice, public lands management, and Indigenous sovereignty and co-management. Students learn to analyze environmental problems, identify key stakeholders and processes, and influence those processes through persuasive writing and presentation. ENRP instructors are policy professionals who provide practical insights to their students on key policy skills like legislative drafting, advocacy, providing public comments to agencies, engaging attorneys to pursue legal action, and working directly with and for disadvantaged communities. ENRP gives students opportunities to engage directly with public interest work and community service during their time in MENV.
ENRP prepares students to work in organizations and institutions central to current natural resource and sustainability debates. These careers could include natural resources or environmental management with a government agency, sustainability planning for a corporation, advocacy for a non-governmental organization, or direct organizing and action with disadvantaged communities.
Guiding Principles
- Integration of Sustainability: The specialization emphasizes integration of sustainability principles and practices throughout the curriculum, enabling students to address environmental challenges while considering long-term social, economic, and environmental impacts.
- Engagement in Public Service: The program encourages students to actively participate in civil service by working with government agencies and underserved communities, aiming to make a positive difference in environmental and natural resources policy fields.
- Advocacy and Influence: ENRP equips students with the skills and knowledge to advocate for environmental causes, influence policy processes, and effectively communicate their ideas through persuasive writing and presentations.
- Strong Governance: The curriculum emphasizes understanding and navigating the complexities of environmental governance systems. Students learn about the historical context, contemporary approaches, and key stakeholders involved in environmental decision-making processes.
- Real-World Application: ENRP offers students opportunities for hands-on engagement through public interest work and community service, allowing them to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world scenarios, fostering practical experience and meaningful contributions to environmental and sustainability issues.
Course Requirements
This course will incorporate a theoretical understanding of how policies are made, what decisions are enacted, and which actors seek to influence policy outcomes. Students in this class will assess frameworks for understanding policy formation and decision-making, and apply this understanding to cases of environmental and natural resource policy. This course will provide a baseline understanding of concepts including: Common Pool Resource Management, Social Ecological Systems, Local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Treaties, Compacts, Storymaps, Public Engagement, and Media Engagement.
Examines concepts related to policy and regulatory processes, institutions, and management of the environment and natural resources. Surveys environmental issues and laws at the international, national, state and local levels. Focuses on policy tools including property rights, regulation, voluntary compliance, and market-based mechanisms. Students analyze a contemporary environmental or natural resources issue and prepare policy advocacy documents and presentations.
Examines the intersection of science with politics and policy, with an emphasis on how scientific information can be used to influence and support reasoned decision-making at all levels of government. The course will present the material through currently relevant and evolving topics such as climate change, species conservation and management, drought and other extreme climatic events, and topical issues as they arise during the course.
This course will provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary to operate within the legal and policy framework of the United States. Students will learn how to locate and interpret federal and state statutes, municipal and county codes, agency policy documents, and judicial decisions at all levels. With this foundational knowledge established, the course then focuses on practical legislative drafting exercises, wherein students create clear and concise frameworks for the government and private parties to act while avoiding potential pitfalls in judicial interpretation. Students will complete the course with a series of practical oral and written advocacy exercises.
ENRP Electives
This course will provide students with the opportunity to examine and research all environmental and natural resources policy issues within a geographic area. These areas can include the Colorado Plateau, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the San Luis Valley, the Puget Sound, or others. Emphasis will be placed on contextualizing contemporary natural resources issues within the greater political, policy, and human history of the examined area. Students will analyze these issues through the lenses of environmental justice, politics, and economics. Each student will choose a principal topic to deepen their knowledge in through research, teaching co-facilitation during the seminar, and writing a publication-quality policy paper. Course time will be spent on-location in the chosen geographic area to meet with policy makers, tribal leaders and members, business representatives, and other subject matter experts to deepen students’ understanding of the issues.
This course will provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary to locate contemporary and historical environmental justice (EJ) issues within the greater framework of American law and policy. Students will examine the history of environmentalism and EJ justice as both have developed, intersected, and been at odds with one another during the last 200 years. They will then learn the contemporary landscape of EJ issues, legal requirements, and societal aspirations through a combination of academic commentary and case studies. Using this knowledge, students will produce advocacy documents that apply conceptual EJ lenses to recommend real-world solutions.
Relevant Specialization Capstone Projects
- Deloitte
- ICLEI
- Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Meet the ENRP Specialization Lead and Faculty
Gregor MacGregor, the ENRP Specialization Lead, serves as a student mentor, curriculum developer, and faculty leader for ENRP. Click the links below to learn more about our ENRP faculty members.