Notable Natural History of the North Country

What sort of neighborhood did you just move into? The goal of this class is to provide you with a broader, regional understanding of the distinctive neighborhood you inhabit during your time at St. Lawrence and some insight into how human populations are impacting these one-of-a-kind places.

Consider this – while at SLU you are only:

~80 miles from the Great Lakes (specifically Lake Ontario), the largest group of freshwater lakes, holding 21% of the world's surface fresh water;

~20 miles from the St. Lawrence River, the longest river in North America and home of the St. Lawrence Seaway, one of the largest engineering projects ever undertaken;

~100 miles from Lake Champlain, sometimes referred to as the “sixth Great Lake” and a body of water with a rich history of exploration, military action, and monster sightings; and

~30 miles away from the Adirondack Mountains, hosting a unique environmental region of boreal ecology encompassed by the Adirondack State Park, the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined.

We will study the geographic/environmental significance of these unique features of the Earth, including their current “health.”  This course also counts as ENVS 101 and fulfills the SST requirement.