Faculty

Raymond F. Dasmann

Raymond F. Dasmann was a field biologist who helped shape the modern environmental movement with more than a dozen books. He promoted the idea of ”ecodevelopment,” in which a community’s growth is not dependent on exploiting its natural resources, and he insisted that indigenous people have a central role in ecological solutions. Dr. Dasmann began emphasizing the need for environmental conservation in the 1950’s, and his 1965 book, ”The Destruction of California,” became a staple of ecology courses in universities in the 1970’s. ”Environmental Conservation” (1959) remains in print. In 1966, he became an ecologist for the Conservation Foundation in Washington, and in 1970, he joined the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Switzerland. Dr. Dasmann began teaching ecology at University of California at Santa Cruz in 1977, staying here until his retirement in 1989.

Bryan H. Farrell

Bryan Farrell was brought to UCSC to start a Center for South Pacific Studies and served as its director. During his time on campus, he also served as the chair for the Environmental Studies department. Bryan was a scholar of the first order, and far ahead of his time. Among his contributions was a thorough understanding of the environmental consequences of the tourism phenomenon. In the modest and thoroughgoing manner that characterized all of his scholarship, Bryan explored and elaborated on what has now become a huge, dynamic, and mostly negative force, the immediate impacts and long-term consequences of which are still being researched and discussed. His on-the-ground knowledge allowed him to make a strong impact on the environments of Hawaii and the South Pacific, such as the marine preserve at Honolua Bay. He was active in connecting his students with local researchers and officials who could help them achieve results, and they did.

James E. Pepper

Recruited by the visionary geographer Richard [Dick] Cooley to join the new environmental studies program at UCSC, Pepper arrived in Santa Cruz in 1972. This oral history is part of the Regional History Project’s VERIP series with professors who retired in the early 1990s. In these two interviews conducted by former Regional History director Randall Jarrell and current director Irene Reti, Jim Pepper describes UCSC’s environmental studies program as one that “had both a theoretical dimension to it and an applied dimension, a program . . . that integrated theory and practice.” Pepper brought to this nascent department his practical experience and background as a professional landscape architect and planner, as well as his probing interest in the philosophical and ethical questions at the heart of environmental issues. Between 1972 and his retirement in 1994, Jim Pepper helped to build a flagship program in environmental studies at UCSC. Outside of academia, Jim Pepper has enjoyed a 45-year distinguished career in environmental planning, site planning, and urban design. His projects included the formulation of an earthquake recovery plan for downtown Santa Cruz after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989.

More on Jim Pepper and the evolution of the UCSC Department of Environmental Studies.

Michael E. Soulé

Research: Biology, conservation biology, and the social and policy context of conservation. He is also interested in population and evolutionary biology, fluctuating asymmetry, population genetics, island biogeography, environmental studies, biodiversity policy, nature conservation, and ethics.  After retiring, he continued to research ecosystem regulation by strongly interactive (keystone) species, and he wrote a book about the origins and evolution of sin and how it can inform our understanding of human nature can guide conservation and related life-affirming movements.

Michael Soulé passed away June 17, 2020, in Grand Junction, Colorado. Read more about his life and achievements.