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 On Saturday May 18th, the Missouri State
Biology Department once again opened
up the Bull Shoals Field Station to
the public. The open house was an
opportunity for the public to see
what goes on at the field station
and offered a chance for people to
get up close and personal with local
wildlife.
The open house is an annual event
to help promote public awareness of
the field station. The event was
well attended with several local
people as well as some past
residents of the historic Drury
House. The open house featured
several displays and examples of
area wildlife, as well as several
tours of the area with Missouri State Biology
department professors and other
volunteers.
On display for the first time was
the new weather station, installed
last summer by Dr. Alexander Wait
and graduate assistant Kyle Bar. The
weather station monitors air
temperature, precipitation, wind
speed and direction, solar
radiation, and relative humidity. In
addition it can monitor fuel
moisture and temperature, which is a
measure of how dry the ground and
combustibles such as leaves are, and
may be used to determine the risk of
fire.
By raising public awareness of
the field station, Missouri State hopes to
renovate the facility and construct
new buildings to allow researchers
and students to stay on the site for
several weeks at a time. Some
renovation has already occurred. A
new roof was recently installed on
the Drury House and a large
generator was removed from the site
by Dr. Emmett Redd of the Missouri State
Physics department, who hopes to
restore it and return much needed
power to the field station.
The Bull Shoals Field Station was
established in 1999 as a partnership
between Missouri State University, The Missouri Department
of Conservation, and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. Located on five
acres in Taney County, the
facilities presently include a
beautiful stone house and several
other small buildings. The field
station overlooks the lake and
borders the 6,000 acre Drury-Mincy
Conservation Area, which is also
available to Field Station users.
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Bull
Shoals Field Station
