Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences Program
FER Home : Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences
NC State plays a key role in promoting the conservation and responsible use of fisheries and wildlife resources across North Carolina, the United States, and the world. We conduct research in vital scientific and environmental areas, graduate highly-trained professionals each year to help lead these disciplines in the future and provide assistance to landowners seeking to manage fish and wildlife populations on their property.
The Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources administers the Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Program, which is shared with the Department of Zoology. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, the program also includes faculty members from the departments of Agricultural & Resource Economics, Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Entomology, Environmental & Molecular Toxicology, Statistics, and the College of Veterinary Medicine.
We provide a balanced approach to the study of wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture. Students observe and analyze systems at the population, community and ecosystem levels. The program is equally committed to teaching, research and extension.
Undergraduate education emphasizes ecological principles with socioeconomics in their application to natural resource management needs. Graduates are well integrated for post-graduate work and entry-level professional positions in agencies, organizations and industry. We sponsor many different extension outreach services to educate the public on issues affecting the health of fish and wildlife populations.
Our Contribution
North Carolina has always been one of America’s richest states when it comes to fish and wildlife resources. Our diversified terrain — which stretches from the Great Smoky Mountains down through the foothills of the Piedmont and onward to the eastern coastal plains and famed Outer Banks — supports an incredibly diverse array of species. Some of these habitats (including the salt water marshes of our coastal counties, the Great Dismal Swamp of northeast N.C. and the unspoiled mountain acres of the Pisgah National Forest) are home to species so unique that they are seldom found outside of North Carolina. Our waters are equally fertile: there are nearly two dozen major commercial species in North Carolina’s salt waters plus thriving populations of shrimp, oyster and blue crab.
These resources are not only important to naturalists and conservationists, they are critical to North Carolina’s economy. Each year, commercial fishermen harvest over 79 million pounds of crab and fish from North Carolina’s waters, while recreational anglers land more than 22 million pounds of fish annually. Tourists also flock to our state to hunt, hike, camp, canoe, birdwatch and observe the wildlife abundant in our many state and national parks.
We collaborate across disciplines within the university, or with state and federal agencies and private organizations, to address basic and applied questions about fish and wildlife ecology, habitat use, conservation, production, harvest, and interactions with people, on a scale ranging from individual organisms to ecosystems. These activities also provide living laboratories for the education of our students.
For more information on the program, please click on the links to the left.
