Station Afiliation...

     The Alice L. Kibbe Life Science Station is funded as a separate budget through the Department of Biological Sciences at Western Illinois University. The Station Director, Dr. Seán Jenkins, is responsible for the coordination of activities and facilities at Kibbe. The Director holds an appointment with the Department and answers directly to the Department Chair. The Kibbe Station Committee, comprised of the Director (who acts as chair of committee) and four faculty members, is responsible for major decisions about the operation and use of the Station. Faculty members on the committee are: Dr. Robert Gessner (Mycologist), Dr Thomas Dunstan (Avian Ecologist), Dr. Michael Romano (Herpetologist and Geneticist), and Dr. Kenneth McCravy (Forest Entomologist). A full-time station manager, Henry “Hank” Courtois, oversees maintenance, grounds keeping and site security at the Station. The University’s physical plant provides additional support of building maintenance and any remodeling at the station.

     The Station manages a preserve composed of land owned by the Western Illinois University, the Illinois Chapter of the Nature Conservancy which owns a sanctuary for wintering populations of bald eagles, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources which owns a nature preserve and floodplain forest along the Mississippi River. Under a cooperative agreement, the station personnel manage the approximately 1680 acres of land within the preserve.

     The Station is a member of the Organization of Biological Field Station (OBFS). OBFS is an organization comprised of field stations and professionals from predominantly North America and Central America. Through annual meetings, a newsletter, occasional reports, and a field course opportunities poster, OBFS provides a forum for discussion of field station management issues, the support of field education opportunities and the promotion of issues of concern to field stations.