• resource policy and management
• wildlife science
• aquatic science
• forest science
• fishery science
• environmental management (M.P.S.(A.L.S.) only)

The M.P.S. (Agriculture and Life Sciences) program has a Peace Corp option in which the student undertakes two semesters of academic work at Cornell and a Peace Corp assignment. For information and instructions on how to apply, visit the M.P.S.(Agriculture and Life Sciences)/Peace Corps Web site, or contact International Programs, 33 Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853; phone 607-255-3037; e-mail: mpsag_peacecorps@cornell.edu. An oral and/or written qualifying examination is given to Ph.D. degree candidates early in their residence.

Research facilities: A variety of terrestrial and aquatic environments are available for research. Reforested areas, mature hardwood forests, extensive agricultural lands, wetlands, lakes, streams, and ponds are within sixty miles of campus.

Several forested or partially wooded areas used for research, demonstration, and management purposes are near the main campus. Arnot Forest, eighteen miles from the campus, comprises four thousand acres of second-growth beech, birch, maple, hemlock, and associated native forest trees. The forest has populations of grouse, deer, and other wildlife and contains ten ponds. Facilities are available for short-term housing, teaching, and research.

The Department of Natural Resources operates the Cornell University Biological Field Station, with a half-mile shoreline and four hundred acres of land, at Shackelton Point on Oneida Lake, which is a shallow, eighty-square-mile eutrophic lake with about sixty warmwater fish species. The station has a permanent research and maintenance staff and is the location of the Cornell Warmwater Fisheries Unit, a research group investigating warmwater fisheries and fish ecology across New York State. Facilities are available for short-term housing, teaching, and research.

The Research, Ecology and Management Facility, located a half mile from the campus, contains facilities for instruction and research in wildlife, fishery, and aquatic science. The laboratory includes a chemistry lab, wet labs, an aquarium room, facilities for processing and holding fish, and a workshop. There are ten ponds on the laboratory grounds for research on warmwater fish in seminatural conditions.

The Laboratory for Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics is a departmental facility that supports research on genetic variability on any type of biota.

The Sapsucker Woods sanctuary of the Laboratory of Ornithology includes 180 acres of woods, shrub land, and wetland and is available for studies of songbirds.

Other nearby areas are available for special research, graduate study, and class demonstration. The twelve-thousand-acre Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, twelve miles from Ithaca, is an outstanding region for grouse, deer, woodcock, and songbirds. A thirty-two-hundred-acre state refuge at Howland's Island, forty-five miles from the campus, has been managed for waterfowl and other game since 1931. The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, forty miles away, is an outstanding waterfowl and muskrat management site.

The department houses the Human Dimensions Research Unit, which conducts inquiry into social and economic aspects of natural-resource management and use. The focus of this unit is to improve understanding of the dynamic sociocultural and political context of natural-resource management and policy development. The Cornell Superfund Basic Research and Education Program is also centered in the department. This effort integrates environmental toxicology, basic biomedical research, and remediation technology across the campus.

Cooperative Research Unit: The New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit combines federal, state, and university assets to facilitate advanced training and research. The research unit staff participates in the department's teaching and advising program.