The Science and Art of Barrier Island Conservation
ECOL 4460/6560 is a 4 credit course and an EECP approved alective. The Maymester course takes place on Ossabaw Island Natural Heritage Preserve, Georgia. It is open to undergraduates in any major and graduate students in any department.
This field course provides a unique opportunity for students from diverse disciplines to:
- Study an ecosystem that retains its wild integrity while bearing centuries of human activity
- Develop skills in the reading & interpretation of landscape, applying these to projects
- Utilize critical thinking and field experience in Ecology, Geology, Geography, Arts, Human and Environmental History, Humanities and Historical Preservation
- Deepen our understanding of the complexities involved in conservation from a variety of perspectives
- How do we experience and develop a Sense of Place?
- How do Science, Art, and Culture interact in conservation issues?
- How do various forms of land use influence ecological processes?
- How do managers choose benchmarks for restoration?
- What is Wild?
- How do personal and collective values play a role in our political system?
Ossabaw Island is a 26,000 acre barrier island near Savannah, Georgia and is remarkable for its wild beauty, abundant wildlife, historic, cultural and archaeological resources and fabulous beaches and marshes. We will study a broad range of influences that shape a landscape through geologic and contemporary time scales. We will seek answers to conservation related questions such as:
Ossabaw Island, a Natural Heritage Preserve held in private ownership for centuries, is now managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. We camp in a beautiful, low-impact campsite, with few amenities and no easy transport to Mainland. Meals are mostly communal.
Course Requirements include 2 projects: one each in Natural History or Ecology, and Art. On campus classes will be held in the ecology seminar room [117 Ecology Building]
Fee: $400
Course limited to 15 students. POD required, so contact instructor early by email and include application.
For More Information
Instructor:
Christine Laporte Gardiner
email: ossabaw@uga.edu
Campus telephone: 542-1283, or leave message 542-2968
Home telephone: 208-0781
