Advanced Certificate: Conservation
The Advanced Certificate: Botany & Conservation provides students with best practices for protecting plants and ecosystems, honing their plant identification skills while providing experience working with field guides and conducting botanical inventories.
The Advanced Certificate in Botany & Conservation advances botanical knowledge into conservation practice. Students refine their plant identification skills and apply them in the field, learning to read plant communities, conduct botanical inventories, and assess the threats that put native species and ecosystems at risk.
Students in the Advanced Certificate programs are required to have completed the Basic Certificate or have equivalent professional experience. Advanced Certificate courses are typically offered once per year.
Note: Enrollment in the Certificate Program is not required to take certificate program courses
Core Curriculum
Conservation Biology
An introduction to the factors that make a species vulnerable to extinction and conservation strategies.
New England Plant Communities
Study the dominant canopy, structure, range, and characteristic species of each New England plant community.
Plant Systematics
Build cumulative vocabulary, knowledge, and skills in plant identification and classification.
Field Identification Techniques
Learn how to use field guides and plant identification keys to observe plants in the wild through field study.
Botanical Inventory Methods and Techniques
Learn botanical inventory methods for cataloging the vascular plants in a natural landscape.
Wetland Identification and Delineation
Gain the principal elements of wetland identification through classroom and field study.
Seed Conservation
Explore the process of procuring, cleaning, and accessioning seeds in a seed bank.
Invasive Plants: Identification, Documentation, and Control
Learn to identify and control invasive plant species through classroom and field study.
Additional Requirements
- Six (6) Elective Course Hours
- Two (2) Landscape Studies
- Community Service Project: 25 hours
- Students apply their newly learned skills by completing a Native Plant Community
- Service Leadership Project that benefits the community and further our mission, such as design and installation of native plant gardens, landscape restorations, and native plant program development.
- Final portfolio
- A summary portfolio detailing certificate requirements, including Community Service Project summary.
The total cost of the Advanced Certificate: Botany & Conservation is approximately $2,500 in course fees and will vary based on the electives and landscape studies taken. Additional costs include required texts (~$250) and supplemental supplies such as a 10X hand lens, a plant ID book or two, a clipboard, notebook, pens/pencils, water bottle, hat, backpack, sunblock and insect repellant, and comfortable sneakers or boots for walking.