Bull Shoals Field Station

Our mission

Our mission is to provide a location and facilities for faculty, students, and visiting scientists to conduct research and educational programs that increase public understanding of southwest Missouri ecosystems.

Field Station facilities

Current picture of Bull Shoals Field Station The Bull Shoals Field Station (BSFS) consists of two properties on either side of Bull Shoals Lake, Drury House in Kirbyville and the Ozarks Education Center (OEC) in Cedarcreek. Drury House consists of a residential structure, an outdoor shelter, a wet lab and a classroom, with access to 5600 acres of public lands at the Drury-Mincy Conservation Area. The OEC is a 4,000 square foot facility that includes a great room for meetings and classes, a kitchen, and bunkroom, cabin and bathhouse facilities for up to 20 individuals. This building is adjacent to MSU's 1200-acre Chase land. Both properties are available to study animal, plant, fungal, protist and bacterial life forms in a wide variety of habitats from glades, grasslands and forests to streams, ponds and the lake. BSFS staff also maintain a weather station in the Drury-Mincy Conservation Area that measures and records climatological data including air and soil temperatures, wind direction and speed, fuel temperature and moisture, precipitation, and calculates evapotranspiration. The current weather station has been in operation since 2002. We upgraded the probes and data logger in 2014. A canopy camera or PhenoCam in the same area records phenological events such as forest canopy development and senescence.

Our clientele consists of university classes from Missouri State and classes from other universities in Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas. We offer undergraduate and graduate courses in the summer and during intersession periods between semesters. We've also had researchers from a variety of institutions and often host society and agency meetings.

Contact us

Contact BSFS staff at BSFS@Live.MissouriState.edu to schedule individual research, classes, small conferences, retreats and educational events.