SDSU offers five undergraduate programs focused on improving our understanding and management of natural resources. These include majors in Conservation Planning and Park Management, Ecology and Environmental Science, Range Ecology and Management, Natural Resource Law Enforcement, and Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences. We have the only higher education academic program in wildlife and fisheries scie
nces in South Dakota. Most graduate students in the Department pursue M.S. or Ph.D. degrees in either Biological Sciences or Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences. However, we have the flexibility to accommodate student needs. For example, some Range Science graduate students may wish to utilize the Animal Science graduate program, and we can accommodate such requests. The Department also hosts the South Dakota Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, the National Wetlands Inventory, several members of the Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence, and the South Dakota GAP Analysis Project. The Department also has numerous off-campus adjunct faculty representing various universities, agencies, and organizations. Departmental faculty members are active in a wide variety of natural resource professional organizations. Common examples include the American Fisheries Society, Ecological Society of America, Society for Range Management, Society of Wetland Scientists, and The Wildlife Society. We are housed within the Northern Plains Biostress Laboratory at SDSU, which was constructed in 1993.
