Sustainability

Ecological Restoration

Advanced ecology training that builds on your knowledge in the field. Courses are offered online, appealing to working professionals as a means to meet their annual professional development requirements or to update their skills and understanding.
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General Studies

This flexible certificate program allows you to customize a course of study to meet your specific learning goals.
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Restoration of Natural Systems – Certificate

Knowing where we are headed, from an ecological standpoint, requires an understanding of environmental impacts and recovery strategies. The Restoration of Natural Systems program provides a bridge that connects this knowledge with the practical skills needed to solve complex restoration issues.
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Restoration of Natural Systems – Diploma

The Restoration of Natural Systems program provides a bridge that connects this knowledge with the practical skills needed to solve complex restoration issues. The program’s holistic approach will empower you, as someone who is passionate about the environment, to make a difference in how we connect with the natural world.
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Upcoming courses, program updates, graduation dates, 390 project ideas, COVID-19 notice and more in this November 2023 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

Upcoming courses, program updates, graduation dates, 390 project ideas, COVID-19 notice and more in this August 2022 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

Upcoming courses, program updates, graduation dates, 390 project ideas, COVID-19 notice and more in this February 2022 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

Upcoming courses, program updates, graduation dates, 390 project ideas, COVID-19 notice and more in this November 2021 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

Upcoming courses, program updates, graduation dates, 390 project ideas, COVID-19 notice and more in this August 2021 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

Upcoming courses, program updates, graduation dates, 390 project ideas, COVID-19 notice and more in this May 2021 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

This year launches the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. It is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. It aims to halt the degradation of ecosystems, and restore them to achieve global goals.

Upcoming courses, program updates, graduation dates, 390 project ideas, COVID-19 notice and more in this winter 2021 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

Upcoming courses, program updates, 390 project ideas and more in this fall 2020 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

COVID-19 update, Upcoming courses, program updates, and more in this summer 2020 Sustainability and Ecological Restoration Newsletter.

New program video, June graduation dates, program reminders including tax information, and a save the date for an RNS spring celebration!

There are lots of new additions to our program – read on for details!

There are lots of new additions to our program – read on for details!

The RNS program is excited and pleased to introduce our new program director, Dr. Nancy Shackelford, who will be joining us in January 2020.

Plans to restore a Garry Oak meadow in honour of former Metchosin councillor, Moralea Milne—who passed away suddenly in 2018—are being given a helping hand by the division's Restoration of Natural Systems (RNS) students and Program Di

For his final RNS diploma program project, Todd Redding restored a section of mountain bike trail in the Three Blind Mice trail network near Penticton, BC. Redding planned and undertook the restoration of the trail with the support of the Penticton Area Cycling Association.

More than half of the earth’s grasslands are degraded from nearly a century of intensive agriculture, resource extraction, and urbanization.

Our relationship with nature is complex. We usually think in terms of taking from nature. It provides us with our needs and wants. But to be a part of nature we also need to give back. There needs to be reciprocity.

Julian enrolled in the RNS program in 2002 thinking he’d learn better ways to pull broom, but instead he learned much about planning, and especially the importance of community involvement in ecological restoration. Whenever the courses allowed, he would do his studies and reports about Cuthbert Holmes Park.

Restoration of Natural Systems Program alumni, Wendy Kotilla, founded the Youth and Ecological Restoration Program (YER) in 2004 based on her own experiences of being surrounded by the healing powers of nature.

Bringing together ecological restoration and permaculture while also incorporating traditional ecological knowledge held by the Penelakut Tribe is the goal of Adam Huggins’ final project for his RNS Diploma.

"If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered species: the child in nature." -Richard Louv, 2005

The University of Victoria offers two programs in ecological restoration benefitting from a partnership that brings together content expertise from the School of Environmental Studies and the sensitivity to adult learner needs and online teaching expertise from the Division of Continuing Studies.

Ecological restoration depends critically on context. In addition to the ecological perspective, ecological restoration in cities needs to consider social and political layers that have impact on a site as well. Context for the site design is critical for a project to endure. There is no single prescription for restoration. To really work, a design requires that we understand the layers of a site’s past history, current influences — both on- and off-site and future impacts.

Amanda Evans is originally from Toronto but came out to Victoria in 2003 to attend the University of Victoria. In 2012, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies and Geography, and a Diploma in Restoration of Natural Systems.

Have you ever wanted to design your own credential? Have you ever struggled to find a program that meets your specific interests and needs? Then you might be interested in our newest program: the Certificate in General Studies.

Like many in her program, Coleman works full time and is five courses into the 12-course program. As a chemist, her day job is analyzing data for an environmental laboratory in Sidney. "I wanted to know more about the environment and systems and how it all fits together," she says. "I thought this program would be a little flaky, like maybe it won't be anything I can use (in life or work). But it definitely is."