Tools and Skills

Any environmental professional needs to be well-versed in a minimum set of analytical, quantitative, and professional skills. In this chapter, we sort through the “toolbox” to introduce students to a few of the more common tools and professional skills used in the field of environmental science and natural resource management. The “crib notes” style information provided in this chapter does not replace more complete statistical, analytical, and geospatial coursework, but will arm students with a better understanding of how data can be collected, analyzed, interpreted, and applied to help solve complex environmental problems. Information in this chapter, backed up with our online resources, will aid students as they work through exercises presented in the case studies that follow and can also serve as a useful reference throughout the remainder of their academic and professional careers.