Valdosta State University (VSU) began an academic exchange with Syktyvkar State University (SSU), situated in the capital of the Komi Republic of Northern Russia, in the early 1990s. Since then, many of our faculty and students have spent a term there, and theirs here; Biology has been one of the departments most actively engaged in these exchanges. Last year, VSU's Office of International Programs began taking groups of students from VSU and elsewhere to study during summer term in St. Petersburg. Situated in northeasternmost Europe, bordering Siberia and the Ural Mountains, is the the Komi Republic, where can be found the largest remaining stands of old-growth boreal forest in all of Europe. In fact, on the Pechora-Ilych Preserve, there is a forest of 1,000-year old Siberian spruce. In Maymester of 2000, VSU will offer a 4-credit intensive field-study course for students majoring or minoring in Biology (or a related field), during which we will explore different areas of Komi's pristine boreal forests and also experience the diverse Eurasian deciduous forests around Moscow, which are a close ecological counterpart to our familiar eastern deciduous forests. Working mostly at Biological Field Stations and public nature preserves and staying in rural areas, we will undertake studies of basic and applied ecology of these forests and examine their flora and fauna in detail, through lectures, demonstration projects, field collections and student special research projects. But we will also have an opportunity to visit famous tourist sites in the Russian capital, Moscow, and in the beautiful and historic city of St. Petersburg (where we will stay the last 3 nights), and we will visit with our hosts in Syktyvkar and get to know the countryside and their interesting city, full of parks, on the banks of the Sisola River at the edge of the great boreal forest. Just outside of town, the river has many old oxbows that are now freshwater ponds and marshes, attracting a variety of wildlife, such as migratory birds. We will have our longest stay just outside of Syktyvkar at SSU's main field station along the beautiful Vychegda River. Both the Sisola and the Vychegda are important "highways for logs" being floated from the forests to mills downstream, which are safely and effectively shared with all manner of small passenger boats. We will travel the Russian countryside by train (north and east of Syktyvkar) and visit remote Russian villages rarely seen by Western tourists. All the while, we will enjoy the "White Nights" (or Midnight Sun) of early summer, but with the chill of northern spring (and relatively few mosquitoes!) still in the air. The course will be taught by Dr. Brad Bergstrom, an ecologist and zoologist at VSU, with the assistance of Dr. Veronica Tarbaeva, a botanist and forest ecologist, and Dr. Vladimir Guryev, a zoologist and ecologist, both from Syktyvkar. Several other academic and government scientists at Syktyvkar and Moscow, and also at the Pechora-Ilych Preserve near the Ural Mtns., will assist us in our visit and meet with the group to show us their special places and tell us about their research. Students will keep daily journals, hear lectures, prepare, identify and annotate specimen collections, and perform an independent research project while at one of the field stations. Final student reports will be submitted to the instructor shortly after our return to the U.S. (Click here for a detailed trip itinerary).