Environmental Studies

The University of Maine at Presque Isle offers an innovative degree program in Environmental Studies featuring opportunities for individualized approaches to environmental problems.

At Presque Isle, we recognize that our world faces immense environmental challenges-from global warming, to the loss of biodiversity through endangered and threatened species, to the effects of air and water pollution, as well as the depletion of our natural resources.

We also know that there are no easy solutions to these challenges. The development and protection of a healthy environment demands both an understanding of the challenges we face and a comprehensive knowledge of our natural world. The Environmental Studies faculty at the University of Maine at Presque Isle is dedicated to preparing the future planners, leaders, and researchers essential to addressing our global and local needs, in government as well as industry, both nationally and internationally. Through an emphasis on field work, research activities, and special seminars, we will provide you with the knowledge and experiences necessary to provide this leadership in critical thinking, problem solving, and responsible global citizenship.

Degree study leads to the Bachelor of Science degree with an Environmental Studies core and concentrations in Ecology, Geology, or a self-designed concentration for students with specific needs or requirements.

Our Environmental Studies Minor is designed specifically for students from a diversity of majors with a strong interest in environmental issues, but not strictly environmental science, to gain a basic interdisciplinary perspective on these issues and challenges, including environmental policy and law, philosophy and literature, and sustainable development.

We offer further opportunities through our GIS (Geographic Information System) program, aimed to bring modern GPS and GIS technologies to students of all majors and to local communities. A two-semester GIS sequence is offered, ENV386-Introduction to GIS (GIS I) in the spring, and ENV486-GIS Applications and Advanced Spatial Analyses (GIS II) in the fall.

GIS (Geographic Information System) is a computing system designed to capture, store, retrieve, analyze, and display geographic information/spatial data. GIS is a powerful tool in dealing with geographic information and in decision making. It is a technological application, which can be used across various disciplines. With improvements in the capabilities of GIS technology and the power of GIS map displays, the number and types of GIS uses have expanded exponentially from purely infrastructure, engineering, and environmental applications to program planning applications pertaining to social and public policy issues.