1881-2019 The Big Ten +2
Throughout our history, we have changed the game in the environmental fields through the innovations and achievements of our alumni, faculty, and students. Here, we highlight a few of our "leaders and best."
1903-1926 Department of Forestry
When U-M was founded in 1817, a vast forest of white pine carpeted swaths of Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas, trees often reaching heights of 200 feet. Within a few decades, rivers like the Saginaw were choked with timber bound for the sawmills—as the nation’s demand for lumber outgrew its supply.
1927-1949 The School of Forestry and Conservation
Always on the leading edge of education, U-M identified the need to broaden the curriculum in the Department of Forestry. As plans to expand the department coalesced in the months leading up to 1927, a man named Samuel Trask Dana was offered the position of chair of the Department of Forestry.
1950-1991 The School of Natural Resources
Following Dana’s lead, the School of Forestry and Conservation became the School of Natural Resources (SNR) in 1950. The decade of the 1950s was one of growth for the country and SNR.
1992-2017 The School of Natural Resources and Environment
The rise of the modern environmental movement in the late 1960s had awakened public awareness in the intervening decades. There was now a global movement concerned with the issues of increasing population, the health effects from industrial pollution—and the alarming loss of old-growth forests, clean drinking water, fertile top soil, and wildlife.
2017-Present: The School for Environment and Sustainability
Once again, the school that began as a small department in 1903 saw the need to further evolve in order to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. This resulted in the creation of the School for Environment and Sustainability in 2017, which aims to provide a focal point and a leading voice of the campus community on sustainability in association with environment and society.
Back to the Garden
Age-old farming methods in Chiapas, Mexico—including those variations practiced by Maya, Zoque, and mestizo cultural groups—draw interest from agroecological researchers like Helda Morales (PhD ’98) and Bruce Ferguson (MSc ’95), who train educators to use school gardens and local food systems as venues for experiential learning.