An Assessment of Geographic Information System Skills Used by Field-Level Natural Resource Managers

tance of the need to teach digital geospatial technologies in forestry departments had forfeited students’ capabilities to perform conventional aerial photo analysis. Also, the survey focused on several aspects of remote sensing curriculum, including aerial photo interpretation and photogrammetry, GIS, and nonphotographic remote sensing. At the time of this survey, the majority of the universities (88%, n 44) did offer a remote sensing class within their forestry department, but 12% (n 6) did not. Seventy-five percent of US universities required remote sensing. Of those, 7% did not offer the class within forestry or natural resources department and students enrolled in universities not offering a remote sensing class within their departments had to take the classes in other departments outside of forestry and natural resources to fulfill this area. Of the remote sensing courses offered in forestry departments, close to one-half of the coursework emphasized aerial photo analysis and nearly one-third focused on photogrammetry. Courses offered outside of forestry departments focused less on photo interpretation and photogrammetry than those classes offered within forestry departments. A follow-up survey conducted in 1998 (Sader and Vermillion 2000) contained similar content and sought to identify any significant changes in remote sensing education since the 1989 survey. In the 1988 survey, 75% of forestry departments required a remote sensing class and in the 1998 survey 80% of departments required the course in their curriculum. In this later survey, only one forestry program that required a course in remote sensing did not offer the course within their department. Both surveys reported median values of 40% of geospatial curricula focused on photo interpretation, 10% focused on nonphotographic remote sensing, and 30% focused on photogrammetry. The level of GIS education in the curricula increased from 5% in 1988 to 10% in 1998. In 1994, the Occupational Competencies Study Group within the Society of American Foresters (SAF) sought to assess the quality of training of recent college graduates (Brown and Lassoie 1998). The survey was sent to government agencies, consulting groups, and private corporations. Respondents were asked to identify which skill requirements were considered essential, highly desirable, desirable, or not necessary for entry-level foresters. Local and state government agencies along with consulting groups and private corporations identified spatial information systems (remote sensing, aerial photo interpretation, and GIS) as highly desirable skills for entry-level foresters to have obtained in college. All survey groups identified aerial photo interpretation as a highly desirable skill, with consulting groups ranking it as the most important of the geospatial skills. Federal agencies and consultants indicated that satellite imagery interpretation was a desirable skill for entry-level foresters. All groups indicated GIS management as a desirable skill set, with state and local agencies, private industry, and consulting groups ranking it higher in importance than federal