Transferable Skills and Big Ideas for the Next Generation of (Paleo)Environmental Decision Makers: A Curricular Example Using Salmon Restoration and Conservation in the Pacific Northwest for Undergraduate and Graduate Student Training

Abstract

Future (paleo)environmental and Earth scientists will need to partake in interdisciplinary dialogue and apply systems thinking to address current and projected environmental problems. Towards this goal, undergraduate and graduate student training should include transferable skills, such as the ability to identify policy claims and understand the role of values, beliefs and attitudes when engaging potential stakeholders. Students should also have robust opportunities to practice these skills in the context of big ideas or issues that are environmentally-relevant. Here we present an example of a project-based scenario which has students first build a set of physical, biological, geohistorical, regulatory, social, and environmental justice “landscape” layers at the watershed-level. Second, the students consider real proposed restoration projects to recover salmon, and convince stakeholders and funding agencies to support their highest priority project. The projects are scored and ranked using Washington State Salmon Funding Recovery Board (SRFB) technical and social criteria. Students gain experience in; 1) analyzing interactions among the science and policy landscape layers in their watersheds, 2) navigating the process of individual and collective decision making regarding restoration and conservation, and 3) communicating to broad audiences, such as the SRFB which includes indigenous, government agency, academic, industry, and non-profit representatives. The ability to connect scientific understandings of the natural world, including paleobiological perspectives, to policy and decision making is a skill-set that needs to be taught and practiced at the undergraduate and graduate levels. While the connections are often clear, acting on those connections is usually the challenge, and student training prepares the next generation of (paleo)environmental decision makers.