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140 Natural Resources and Environmental Issues Volume VII of the system to a GIS would also provide a setting for addressing the many spatial issues that arise in forest planning. CONCLUSIONS Forest management is an ideal class to teach using computers. Computers are becoming essential forest management tools. Computer models are widely used to manage forest inventories and to simulate stand development. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used by forest industries and agencies to store and update inventory information, to map management areas, and for performing analyses of management policies. Today, spreadsheets and word processors are essential basic tools in virtually all fields. Familiarizing students with computers and forestry-related and general-use software has become a key element of a professional forestry education. The forest management courseware described in this paper will supplement a traditional textbook and take advantage of the things that can be done better with a computer-based approach. While the computer is not likely to rival the textbook in the areas of depth and portability, it can provide an interactive medium to relieve some of the more tedious aspects of traditional course materials. Some of the more promising features of computer-based instruction are the non-linear, multi-level possibilities of hypermedia, interactive tutorials, animated graphics, computer-administered problem sets, and simulation programs that can relieve the student and the instructor of some of the more tedious activities to allow more focus on concepts and more general issues. LITERATURE CITED Kashy, E. B.M. Sherrill, I. Tsai, D. Thaler, D. Weinshank, M. Engelmann, and D.J. Morrissey. 1993. CAPA — An Integrated Computer-Assisted Personal Assignment System. Amer. J. Phys. 61, 1124. 1 The subjects covered in the course are listed later in this paper, and comments or suggestions regarding the course content are welcome. Figure 3. The Min Screen in WRITELIN. Figure 4. The Model Formulation Screen in WRITELIN.
AN ETHICS PRIMER FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS INTENDING TO BECOME NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGERS AND ADMINISTRATORS Richard J. McNeil Professor, Department of Natural Resources, Fernow Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-3001 e-mail rjm20@cornell.edu ABSTRACT: Natural resources managers and administrators frequently face problems which have ethical dimensions. This paper is intended to help students learn how to become more comfortable and sophisticated with ethical aspects of their management studies, to learn to include ethical tools more in their decision making, and consequently to become better prepared to manage resources later placed in their care. Many of us realize that ethical questions are fundamental to our work. Most of us feel that we have an adequate understanding of and ability to distinguish between “right” and “wrong” behaviors. But we are unable to discuss ethical ideas fluently and we feel insufficiently well prepared to include them in public forums where management alternatives are discussed. A “primer,” discussing and illustrating a small number of basic concepts and principles, will not make philosophers of us but it can give us basic building blocks and sufficient confidence that we can continue to grow in our study of and our abilities to use those ideas. For example, how large is the “moral community”? To whom or what do I have obligations? Aldo Leopold’s land ethic argued that an extension of ethics would include the land; that is, we have moral responsibilities to other living creatures (and perhaps to non-living components of our environment). In public meetings we hear it argued that all animals (and all plants, or some animals only, or all nature, or rocks and waterfalls) have rights. We hear it said that hunting is immoral, that allowing deer to starve is wrong, that any interference with nature is ethically questionable. If we can better understand, not just the emotional depth, but logical, cultural, and religious sources and the arguments for and against these various positions and their ethical ramifications, we will find ourselves better prepared to enter into ethical aspects of public discussions regarding resource management, and further, to use ethical tools more effectively in making management decisions. This paper discusses this and several similar fundamental concepts and illustrates their importance in resource management. INTRODUCTION In early June of 1958 a baby deer was left in a cardboard box on the front steps of the Indian River station of what is today called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. I was a wildlife biologist then, stationed at Indian River. It was clearly impossible to return the fawn to its mother. Also, no zoo or animal “orphanage” wanted more deer. Individual deer had been raised more or less successfully in the past, although this practice is generally illegal, and the adult deer then may become a nuisance or a danger. It was generally agreed that the fawn had to be killed. I took it into the woods, cut its throat, and left its corpse. When I tell this story to my freshman class of natural resources majors, the long and relatively unsophisticated discussion sometimes centers around the rightness and wrongness of killing the deer, but usually focuses on possible ways to keep it alive. When I encountered this problem almost 40 years ago, I was completely unprepared to raise or consider any moral questions related to the situation. I very frequently faced (and our students will face) similar questions which had (or have) ethical or moral dimensions. Is sport hunting itself a morally right or neutral or wrong activity? What about fishing? Are certain kinds of traps cruel? And are they therefore wrong to use? How should I deal with the information that I have regarding a man who illegally kills a deer to help feed his very poor family? Should “chicken hawks” be killed because they kill the farmers’ chickens? Should bisons be killed because they may transmit brucellosis to cattle? If we have reduced predators by various human activities, do we have a responsibility to replace them or their behaviors to retain a certain “balance of nature”? Should the last few members of an endangered species be captured in an attempt to “save” the species? I could have been far better prepared. And our students and the public deserve that our future professional workers in the
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Acknowledgments This publication re
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INDEX BY SESSION Sunday, March 8, P
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Teaching Methods: Collaborative Lea
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The Upper Midwest Regional Capstone
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INDEX BY AUTHOR if first author, pa
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INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCE PLANNIN
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TEACHING CORE VALUES: SOME QUESTION
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WRITING AND FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE
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THE INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURAL RESOU
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NEW IDEAS FOR TEACHING NATURAL RESO
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ASSESSING A FORESTRY EDUCATION: THE
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A GRAPHICAL SURFACE-VEGETATION-ATMO
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WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM EFFOR
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TEACHING AQUATIC ECOLOGY WITHIN ECO
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