Professional Forester Option — MNR
The Master of Natural Resources (MNR) Professional Forester option is for individuals with baccalaureate degrees in fields other than forestry and those who are interested in becoming Registered Foresters in Alabama or elsewhere in the United States. This degree program is a two-year program which begins with a 10 week summer Field Practicum and requires a minimum of 65 semester hours of which 35 hours of specified undergraduate course work plus 30 hours of graduate course work.
The MNR Professional Forester program is accredited by the Society of American Foresters (SAF). SAF is the accrediting body recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation as the accrediting agency for forestry education in the United States. Graduation from such SAF-accredited programs is required of all applicants for Registered Forester status in Alabama and several other states.
| First Year | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer | Hours | Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| BIOP 3391 Forest and Manufacturing Operations | 1 | FORY 3100 Dendrology | 3 | FORY 3200 Forest Tree Physiology | 3 |
| FOEN 3040 Forest Surveying | 2 | FORY 3180 Forest Resource Sampling | 3 | FORY 4190 Forest Biometrics | 3 |
| FORY 3020 Forest Biology | 3 | BIOP 3390 Introduction to Forest Products and Packaging | 3 | FORY 4230 Forest Ecology | 3 |
| FORY 3050 Field Mensuration | 4 | FORY 3010 Forest Soils | 3 | FORY 6400 Forest Economics | 3 |
| FORY 3060 Introduction to Forest Management Strategies | 1 | Graduate Electives* | 3 | ||
| 11 | 12 | 15 | |||
| Second Year | |||||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours | ||
| FORY 6150 Forest Health | 3 | FORY 6140 Forest Regeneration and Seedling Production | 3 | ||
| FORY 6151 Forest Health Laboratory | 1 | FOEN 6700 Harvesting | 3 | ||
| FORY 6410 Forest Management and Administration | 3 | Graduate Electives* | 7 | ||
| FORY 6230 Silviculture | 4 | ||||
| FOWS 5270 Natural Resource Policy | 3 | ||||
| 14 | 13 | ||||
| Total Hours: 65 | |||||
- *
Graduate Electives on the following list fulfill the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities required by the accreditation guidelines of the Society of American Foresters.
Graduate Electives Course List
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| FORY 6440 | International Forestry | 3 |
| FORY 6470 | GIS Applications in Natural Resources | 2 |
| FORY 6480 | GIS Database Design and Analysis | 2 |
| FORY 6650 | Urban Forestry | 3 |
| FORY 7400 | Forest Valuation and Economics | 3 |
| FORY 7650 | Forest Operations and Wood Supply Chain Management | 3 |
| FOWS 6220 | Landscape Ecology | 3 |
| FOWS 6260 | Forest Wetlands Restoration Ecology | 3 |
| FOWS 6620 | Natural Resource Finance and Investment | 3 |
| FOWS 7230 | Forest Stand Dynamics | 3 |
| FOWS 7250 | Longleaf Pine Ecology, Management, and Restoration | 3 |
| NATR 6250 | Wetland Ecology and Management | 3 |
| NATR 6880 | Ecological Economics | 3 |