Networking environmental professionals to promote ecology competency skills needed for today’s emergent environmental careers

Many ecology faculty do research far from where they teach. Often their students are unaware of the local ecological initiatives, mandated statewide environmental literacy plans and environmental justice activities, local land trust and nature centers’ efforts to enhance biodiversity conservation near their universities. I argue that their curriculum must integrate students and themselves with the diverse network of environmental professionals active in their region, to recruit and educate a diverse ecological workforce. I outline how to engage their students in local ecological collaborations to learn how to address real world problems in preparation to joining today’s broadly skilled environmental workforce.