BS MAJOR

What You’ll Study

If you’re eager to make your mark on our world now, Conservation Biology is an exciting field to study. As ecosystems and species inch closer to extinction, there’s a very real opportunity to have a lasting impact. Our program involves study areas including:

  • Genetics
  • Evolutionary biology
  • The natural science undergraduate research sequence

Class Projects

Class assignments partner students with local, state, federal, and non-profit environmental agencies for projects like:

  • Restoring local ecosystems of spruce-fir forest, wetlands, or monarch butterfly habitat
  • Developing conservation management plans for imperiled species on public and private lands
  • Creating public outreach materials to support conservation of a beloved natural area

Where Graduates Go

Our students have started conservation-based careers in state and federal agencies like the U.S. Fish & Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service or non-government conservation agencies like the Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund. They’ve also started their own conservation organizations or gone on to top graduate school programs.

Make a Difference

Your classwork supports real-world causes, like protecting the Carolina northern flying squirrel, a living relic of the last ice age threatened by habitat destruction.

Flying Squirrel

Explore Classes in This Program

BIO 3100

Conservation Biology

Conservation biology is the applied science of maintaining the earth’s biological diversity. The main focus of this course is biological, but it is interdisciplinary and reaches into ethics, economics, and sociology. The explicit goal of this discipline is to conserve biodiversity at all levels of organization from genetics to populations, species, communities and ecosystems.

BIO 4020

Evolutionary Biology

You’ll get a comprehensive introduction to this vast and crucial field, which is the foundational principle of all biology. Coursework covers Darwinism, genetics, paleontology, the origin of life, and human evolution.

BIO 4721

Topics in Conservation Biology

Topics in Conservation Biology are rotating courses that address timely and current issues in conservation biology. In the Mammal Diversity and Conservation course, you’ll explore the origins and current diversity within Class Mammalia and how humans are working to conserve that biodiversity. You’ll also take your skills off campus on at least one weekend trip.

Still curious? See the Curriculum
Meet Our Faculty

I am more guide than teacher; I love guiding intelligent, passionate students as they help change the world not just after they graduate, but as part of their educational experience.

Liesl Peterson Erb, Ph.D.
Meet Liesl Peterson Erb See all Natural Sciences Faculty
Liesl Peterson Erb
Liesl Peterson Erb, Ph.D.
Amy Boyd

Warren Wilson is a place where we are engaged lovers of learning and of connecting what we learn to the world. It's also a community where we can be whole people with diverse interests, where I can not only be scientist but artist, musician, gardener, mother.

Amy Boyd, Ph.D.
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Amy Boyd
Amy Boyd, Ph.D.
Alisa Hove

Warren Wilson College provides seemingly endless opportunities to work in collaborative settings with students who take an active role in their own learning.

Alisa Hove, Ph.D.
Meet Alisa Hove See all Natural Sciences Faculty
Alisa Hove
Alisa Hove, Ph.D.

I love teaching at Warren Wilson because the students challenge me to dig deeper and think harder. And I return the favor: we push and support each other in our learning.

Olya Milenkaya, Ph.D.
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Olya Milenkaya, Ph.D.
Liesl Peterson Erb

Hands-on, All-in

Warren Wilson integrates your academics with work and community engagement. Engaging all your passions and interests results in an education with meaning and real professional experience.
red wolf
Break Trip 
Consider a trip like 'There Might Be Wolves: The Plight of the Red Wolves'
Cottontail Conservation 
Dr. Liesl Erb researches Appalachian cottontails.
In the News 
Dr. Olya Milenkaya ’03 and Daniel Baron ’22 study Bald Eagles nesting around Lake James. Photo: Olya Milenkaya
Research
Monitoring Climate Change 
Classes monitoring phenological phenomena to gather long-term data
Students in genetics lab
Genetics Research Assistant 
Work in a lab on a variety of genetics projects
NSURS Presentation
Capstone Experience

Natural Science Undergraduate Research Sequence

Students in the Conservation Biology emphasis take this three-semester sequence of courses, which gives you graduate-style research experience at the undergraduate level. You’ll work with a faculty advisor to design your own project, collect and analyze data, present your findings, and publish a thesis.

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