Master of Environmental StudiesGraduate Program on the Environment

Decorative graphic

Overview of MES Program

For Prospective Students

For Current Students

MES Thesis Project


students performing field work
Fieldwork

MES Students finish the program by completing an 8 credit Thesis
This thesis requires the student to engage in research on a topic of real-world interest and consider its political, economic and scientific aspects. The project might be a baseline study that considers policy implications for an ecological area or a study of a particular environmental problem. The project preferably should be of value to an external client or organization and not just an academic exercise. As the culminating act of the thesis project, students share results with faculty and students in a public oral presentation. Detailed information may be found on the Thesis Information webpage.

8 Credit Thesis

The 8 credit thesis is the primary culminating project of MES students, and reviews and analyzes an existing body of information and does not involve substantial original field or survey research. This thesis is written in a workshop setting during winter and spring quarters of the student's final year. Students completing the 8 credit thesis take 32 electives credits.

A 16-credit Thesis option is availble under advisement.


MES students have completed a number of important theses. Recent examples are:

  • Cougar-Human Encounters: A Search for the Facts by Debbie Carnevali
  • Self-Reported Pesticide Exposure Among Apple Thinners in the Yakima Valley, Washington State by Steven Ganey
  • Residential Energy Conservation: An Evaluation of the Strategy for the Proposed Eco-city Bamberton, British Columbia by Andrea E. Hallman
  • Adventure to Action: An Outdoor Environmental Education Program for Pre-teens by Jonathan Orelove
  • Pesticide Use in Cranberry Bogs: Water Quality Impacts and Regulations by Barbara Patterson
  • Improving the Efficiency of Washington State Department of Transportation's Wetlands Mitigation Program Using Aerial Photography and GIS by Ronald Jay Pratt
  • The Use of Indicators to Advance Olympia, Washington's Sustainable City Program by Nicole Helen Ribreau
  • Risk Assessment and Clean-up Policy at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation: A Case Study by Douglas Joseph Vaugh
For a complete list of Thesis Projects, visit the Thesis Information Page.