Environmental students ignoring fieldwork, says uManitoba prof

"I don't think (environmental students) can possibly be true environmental scientists without having the background in environmental work outdoors," says a University of Manitoba biologist and former director of the Delta Marsh Field Station, whose operations were cut back in 2009. His comments come at a time when enrolment in environmental studies at uManitoba "is rocketing." The professor says students lacking fieldwork are not prepared when they graduate, which opens up future environmental leaders "to charges of hypocrisy and could promote an overly idealistic view of nature." The dean of uManitoba's environment faculty disagrees that students are doing less fieldwork, suggesting that it may appear that way because the types of fieldwork are much more diverse than a decade ago. Winnipeg Free Press