Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management B.S.
The B.S. in Parks, Tourism & Recreation Management degree is designed to prepare students for professional positions developing and managing nature-based recreation experiences and park resources for public land management agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the nature-based tourism industry. Students pursuing this degree must choose between an concentration in Recreation Resources Management or Nature-Based Tourism. The Recreation Resources Management concentration provides the educational background necessary for evaluating and managing wild lands to protect their recreational, heritage, and ecological values. The Nature-Based Tourism concentration is designed to combine an understanding of social, cultural, political, environmental, and economic contexts surrounding tourism in a natural resource setting. All students learn the processes and conceptual skills needed to determine alternative management strategies, make management decisions, and carry out management programs. Included are courses leading to an understanding of the basic ecological characteristics of recreational lands. Students also take courses dealing with human behavior and management. Emphasis is placed on presenting problems that would be encountered while managing national parks and forests, state and regional parks, wilderness areas, and other recreation resources of international and national significance.
General Degree Requirements
To earn a baccalaureate degree, all students must complete successfully, in addition to any other requirements, the University of Montana General Education Requirements. Please refer to the General Education Requirements page for more information.
Additional requirements for graduation can be found on the Degree/Certificate Requirements for Graduation page.
Unless otherwise noted in individual program requirements, a minimum grade point average of 2.00 in all work attempted at the University of Montana-Missoula is required for graduation. Please see the Academic Policies and Procedures page for information on how your GPA is calculated.
Courses taken to satisfy the requirements of a major, minor, or certificate program must be completed with a grade of C- or better unless a higher grade is noted in the program requirements.
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE - PARKS, TOURISM, AND RECREATION MANAGEMENT
Course Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Lower-Division Major Required Courses | ||
| Complete all of the following courses: | ||
| NRSM 121S | Environmental Science and Sustainability | 3 |
| or PTRM 141Y | National Parks and American Culture | |
| PTRM 150 | First Year Seminar in Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management | 1 |
| PTRM 210S | Nature Tourism & Commercial Recreation | 3 |
| PTRM 217S | Parks & Outdoor Recreation Management | 3 |
| Complete one of the following courses with a lab: | 3-4 | |
| Soils and Water and Ecology, Physics and Taxonomy of Soils | ||
| Intro to Physical Geography: Climate, Landforms, and Vegetation and Intro to Physical Geography Laboratory: Climate, Landforms, and Vegetation | ||
| Lower-Division Outside Major Required Courses | ||
| Complete all of the following courses: | ||
| ACTG 201 | Principles of Financial Accounting | 3 |
| ACTG 202 | Principles of Managerial Accounting | 3 |
| COMX 111A | Introduction to Public Speaking | 3 |
| or THTR 120A | Introduction to Acting I | |
| ECNS 201S | Principles of Microeconomics | 3 |
| M 115 | Probability and Linear Mathematics | 3 |
| PSYX 100S | Intro to Psychology | 3 |
| or SOCI 101S | Introduction to Sociology | |
| Complete one of the following courses: | 3 | |
| Principles of Living Systems | ||
| Principles of Biological Diversity | ||
| Introductory Ecology | ||
| Introduction to Botany | ||
| Complete one of the following courses: | 3-4 | |
| Introduction to Statistics | ||
| Social Statistics | ||
| Forest Biometrics | ||
| Upper-Division Major Required Courses | ||
| Complete all of the following courses: | ||
| BIOE 447 | Ecosystem Ecology | 3 |
| or FORS 330 | Forest Ecology | |
| or NRSM 462 | Rangeland Ecology | |
| NRSM 422 | Natural Resource Policy and Administration | 3 |
| PTRM 300 | Recreation Behavior | 3 |
| PTRM 310 | Natural Resource Interpretation and Communication | 3 |
| PTRM 380 | Recreation Administration & Leadership | 3 |
| PTRM 482 | Wilderness & Protected Area Management | 3 |
| or PTRM 451 | Tourism & Sustainability | |
| PTRM 484 | Capstone in Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management | 3 |
| PTRM 485 | Recreation Planning | 3 |
| or PTRM 486 | Entrepreneurship in Tourism and Recreation | |
| PTRM 498 | Internship | 1-6 |
| Skills Courses | ||
| Complete 3 credits from the following courses: | 3 | |
| Collaborations in Natural Resource Decisions | ||
| Principles of Marketing | ||
| Intro to GIS for Forest Mgt | ||
| Advanced Writing Requirement | ||
| Complete one of the following courses: | 3 | |
| Tourism & Sustainability | ||
| Wilderness & Protected Area Management | ||
| Total Hours | 68-75 | |