The animal ecology and forestry departments recently combined to create the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management.

On July 1, the merger was made official, and Michael Kelly became the chairman for the new department.

The focus of the department will remain very similar to the previous separate departments, Kelly said.

He said only philosophies of the departments will be modified. More emphasis will be placed in the holistic approach that looks at all aspects of forestry and animal ecology.

“There’s a change in the way people are thinking about natural resources. More emphasis is being placed on resource stewardship,” Kelly said. “Now we’re thinking across a lot of things instead of just one particular view.”

The departments have already collaborated on a number of research projects, said Janette Thompson, assistant professor of natural resource ecology and management.

“We’re like-minded in terms of both research and teaching program and have taken similar approaches to these, so now we’ll have the opportunity to do more in all the areas we have,” she said.

The combined efforts of the two departments will bring other benefits as well.

“There’ll be a development of new programs that will cut down the barriers to managing forests and fishing and wildlife.” said Gary Atchison, professor of natural resource ecology and management.

Thompson said she believes this change will be beneficial to faculty as well as students.

“Both departments are relatively small so they have had to cover a lot of territory,” Thompson said. “They’ve had to represent themselves in a number of committees around campus.

“This meant that each faculty must be in charge of a committee of some sort,” Thompson said. “Being able to combine our forces allows us to spread that labor out a little bit.”

The research program will be strengthened greatly by the merging of the departments, Kelly said.

“Both departments had strong research programs before that will develop even more with the combined faculties to carry them out,” he said.

Although these benefits will be felt in the future, there will be little impact on the students in the short run.

“Academic plans, research plans, all those things have to be meshed together,” Kelly said. Because of this, those students who have been majoring in animal ecology and forestry will see a few changes in curriculum.

However, Thompson said she believes eventually there will be broader course offerings and a greater number of faculty to create more possibilities.

In the upcoming years, students will be recruited under the new program.

“It will have a positive impact because we’ll be able to have a stronger department and additional research support that will grow over time,” Kelly said. “It will generally better prepare students to enter a profession in natural resources.”

Those benefits won’t come without work.

“It will just take a tremendous amount of effort to fuse the two separate departments into one,” Atchison said, “but in the long run, it’s worth it.”