Students in WCU's Geology, Geography, and Natural Resource Management divisions participate in many kinds of "hands-on" field work in the area and abroad. When asked what he thought the most interesting aspect of the program was, Kolenbrander replied, "Student involvement." This fall, he explained, five students attended Society of American Forests conference in Portland, Oregon with Natural Resource Managment professor Dr. Peter Bates. They presented poster sections of the work they did for the U.S. Forest Service, clear cutting several acres of land to improve the Grouse habitat there, then restocking the land with black cherry trees.

"Not only that," Kolenbrander added, "but we've been working on a 1300-acre ranch in Cherokee county and 250 acres of forest near the Macon/Jackson county border.

"We're working extensively with water quality," he explained. "In 1991, we started doing water sampling at the Whitmire cattle farm. They had a creek where the cows could just walk down to drink wherever they pleased. When they fenced off the jaority of the creek, we sampled the water and found 14 to 16,000 parts fecal coliform per 100 mililiters of water. We took another sample a few days ago, and the levels have reduced to about 75 fecal coliform per 100 ml. That means in the last eight years, we've reverted to a watershed stream standard rating of 3, which is great. It means that now the water is a lot easier to treat for drinking quality."

The department sports an active Geology club that is creating a web page and an online activities calendar. The club sponsors meetings and social events.