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The first rule for teaching ecology: “Get them outside; early and often”. David Schindler, University of Alberta.

Recent commentary on the ECOLOG-L email list (a US-based ecology discussion group) has been lamenting the decline in field ecology training at several (but not all) universities in the US, and noting similar trends in other countries, such as the UK and India. Among the clamour of concerns, a number of staff at government agencies have highlighted the lack of practical skills that many recent graduates are bringing to their jobs. One commentator decried that at one major US university ‘fisheries students – yes, fisheries students, that graduate with both B.S. and M.S degrees that have never once set a net, measured a fish, or run a boat.’

I had a similar lament during my own undergraduate degree years ago at the University of New South Wales, Australia. I vividly remember looking forward to the field trip in my second year Vertebrate Zoology class. Older students had regaled us with tales of trapping, catching and observing everything with a backbone at the wonderful field station set on Smith’s Lake in the midst of coastal forests and heathland at Myall Lakes National Park. I couldn’t wait! Sadly, due to budget constraints, our year was the first Vertebrate Zoology class where this half-week field trip to ecology nirvana was replaced by a one-day, largely self-guided trip to the city zoo. It was a great zoo, but no match for Smith’s Lake. Desperate to get my field ecology fix, I volunteered for summer field work, which took me to ecology nirvana not just as a helper, but also during my honours research. Happily, my alma mater now has a designated field biology course and other trips for undergrads to Smith’s Lake.

Most ecologists well know the benefits of a field ecology course, but it doesn’t hurt to reiterate some of these here (and let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any).

• It is great fun! Students love it and so do staff. Students often consider field courses to be the best parts of their degrees and staff love to be reminded of why we often chose to be ecologists in the first place. This shared love of the outdoor experience also breaks down barriers between staff and students (enabled by the fact that trips are often overnight and so students and staff will do chores and socialise together, and while away long vehicle journeys chatting about all manner of topics).
• A key tenet of education is learning by doing: nothing beats actually getting hands on (often hands dirty in ecology!) to learn a new technique, acquire a new skill or to understand theory that much more clearly.
• It helps students determine their career path. Many students will fall in love with ecology fieldwork and strive to find a job that allows them to continue to do this. Equally importantly though, it allows some students to realise that field work isn’t for them. Field work can seem very glamorous when we read about it in magazines or see it in documentaries, but like all science it is repetitive. Add to that occasional harsh weather conditions and biting or dangerous animals and it is understandable that not everyone will love field research. It is better to discover this early in your career, so you can pursue other jobs, keeping in mind that your experience of field work will nonetheless be relevant to a wide range of vocations in ecology and beyond.
• Field work enhances time management and problem-solving skills. Time in the field is costly and so we need to be efficient when doing field work. Also, when doing field work you can virtually guarantee that something will go wrong, be it equipment failure, extreme weather, health scares or problems accessing field sites, so a successful field trip often requires excellent problem-solving skills and resilience.

Here at Lincoln University, we are actually increasing our field ecology classes. A big reason for this is a recent university-wide qualifications reform aimed at adding extra practical classes to the curriculum. Where we previously had one field ecology course (ECOL310 Field Ecology) we now have two: ECOL293 Field Ecology Methods, where students learn a range of techniques to survey plants and animals, and ECOL393 Field Ecology Research, where students apply these techniques to address their own field-based research.

I’m writing this blog during our annual field research trip to the Southern Alps and as usual our students are tackling a wide range of interesting projects with dedication and gusto. Tristan Girdwood is assessing the vulnerability of beech trees to drought. Carina Pohnke and Jessica Hughes Hutton are measuring several hundred beech trees and saplings to explore spatial patterns related to competition and disturbance. Michael Hargraves is also working on beech forests and is looking at how woody plant diversity changes with distance from ephemeral creeks.

There are several students studying vertebrates. Bryn Williams is adding to and collating several years of pest mammal monitoring to look at how things have changed with the recent beech mast, Sotir Goxhaj is looking at mammal diets, while Stacey Burnet, Lauren Rodgers and Erica Stokvis are exploring how pest mammal plagues might have impacted bird populations. Zac Taylor and Kendall Sparrow have been doing transects to explore patterns in bird distributions away from human settlement and Mitch Hutson has been walking up hill and down dale recording patterns in deer browse.

Keeping with the beech mast/rodent plague theme, Paula Greer is comparing invertebrate richness and composition in grassland in mast and non-mast years, while Kate Curtis and Sherry Hannah are showing their love for spiders with comparisons across years, habitats and survey methods. Mandy Black and Cecilie Svenningsen are climbing mountains and peering down microscopes to see what insects are eating native and exotic daisy flowers to test the enemy release hypothesis and to see how altitude influences this. Hayley Dalton has been out at night with light traps catching moths in beech forest and grasslands. My colleagues (Jon Sullivan, Nathan Curtis, Mike Bowie, James Ross, Ian Geary, and Kevin Maurin) and I have the best job of all, flitting between groups like NZ fantails, helping whenever needed.

Our students are already excitedly explaining their preliminary findings to all and sundry. I can’t wait until we start to crunch the numbers more thoroughly, uncover the patterns in their data and see them present their findings. Based on ongoing field trips to wonderful places like the New Zealand Southern Alps and Australia’s coastal heathlands, arid zone and forests and heathlands, it seems that the future of field ecology training is not all bad news.

UPDATE 23 March 2015

I was recently asked to submit this blog to the NZ Ecological Society newsletter. In doing so, I decided to look into other field ecology courses being taught in NZ universities. There are many! So here is the last sentence above updated to include links to many of these other wonderful field courses. Many thanks to Stephen Hartley, KC Burns and Nicky Nelson (VUW) and Jarrod Cusens (AUT) for answering last minute queries about this.

Based on ongoing field trips to wonderful places on Lord Howe Island, New Zealand’s North Island (including Pureora Forest Park, Great Barrier Island, and elsewhere, see here, here, here, and here), the Lewis Pass, Mt Cass and elsewhere on the South Island, and Australia’s coastal heathlands, arid zone and forests and heathlands, it seems that the future of field ecology training is not all bad news.