Facilities and Station Use
The
layout of the station consists of five buildings, including a restored
19th-century farmhouse providing living quarters for the site manager
and his family, and two large storage buildings used to house watercraft,
machinery, and sampling equipment. Another 19th-century farmhouse
(Frank house) was remodeled and
expanded to accommodate two classrooms, a kitchen/dining area, bathrooms,
office space, and two small laboratories. The newest facility is a
4,200-square-foot multiple-use
building with two dormitory wings that can house a total of 48
people. The building also has a modern kitchen, dining facility and
showers. The whole building is handicap accessible.
The wide variety of
aquatic and terrestrial communities at the Station and in the vicinity
provides excellent opportunities for studies and instruction in field
ecology and biology. The sandbars, islands, and sloughs of the Mississippi
River are easily accessible. Floodplain forests occur along the shoreline
of the river while upland oak dominated forests are located on ridges
and tops of the bluffs. Limestone outcroppings and hill prairies are
commonly found on more xeric exposed sites. Rocky intermittent streams
are found in the valleys and hollows. Two large tracts of restored
tallgrass prairie are also being actively managed at the Station.
|
