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On Aug. 1, John E. Havel, Ph.D., professor and
director of the Bull Shoals Field Station, department of biology, at
Missouri State University, met me in Ozark. With him were Missouri State President John Keiser and assistant to the president, Jim Baker.
We wasted no time driving south that morning
through Branson and Taney County, eventually reaching the five-acre
field station complete with a splendid old stone house built in 1924
by Frank Drury and several outbuildings overlooking Bull Shoals Lake.
Missouri State is restoring the house for classrooms and research labs. The
development will enable the university to expand the use of the field
station for research and education.
In addition, the 6,000-acre Drury-Mincy
Conservation Area, also available to field station users, is deeply
wooded with oak-hickory forest, post-oak savanna, and glades. There
are also numerous streams and ponds.
Our mission that day was to tour the Missouri State Bull
Shoals Field Station. John Havel planned the tour. We would visit the
station house and grounds, along with several research sites,
including a new weather station operated by graduate students. Water
quality research is high on the agenda. Graduate students would be on
hand manning a pontoon boat testing water clarity and examples of good
and bad algae blooms.
While field stations are not household words to
many, they are essential for environmental study and education. In a
changing world, researchers at field stations can document important
long-term processes that are affecting our environment. The stations
also provide students with exceptional opportunities to study the
natural world and to interact with teachers and researchers in an
outdoor setting.
The Bull Shoals Field Station was established in
1999 as a partnership among Missouri State University, the
Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engmeers.
The magnificent scenery looking down from the
stone house was once a bend on the mighty White River, one of the
finest smallmouth bass streams in the nation. Construction of the dam
was initiated in June 1947, and completed in July 1951. Commercial
generation was begun in 1952. The cost of damming the river
approximately $85,896,000.
Current projects at the field station include
environmental studies, which will increase the value of the station
for future users.
According to John Havel, maps and databases are
being prepared, along with surveys of plant and animal diversity.
Monitoring water quality of the White River watershed will be ongoing.
The White River watershed includes four
reservoirs along the main channel of the White River. Beaver Lake in
Arkansas, Table Rock Lake, Lake Taneycomo and Bull Shoals shared by
Missouri and Arkansas.
Over the past 10 years, some of these lakes have
exhibited the early signs of deteriorating water quality, particularly
that due to nutrient loading and eutrophication. Detailed long-term
research by Jack Jones and colleagues at the University of Missouri
has demonstrated significant changes in transparency, nutrient levels
and algal biomass in Table Rock. Bull Shoals Lake regularly becomes
oxygen depleted, and releases of oxygen-poor water from the dam have
caused fish kills and major impacts on the trout fishery in the dam
tailwaters.
The Bull Shoals Field Station is in the heart of
wildlife habitat.
Diversity includes numerous deer, wild turkey,
armadillos, alligator snapping turtles and greater roadrunner. The
area is also home to several protected species such as the bald eagle,
gray myotis bat and Indiana bat.
On the lighter side of things that day, Havel
reminded us a few days earlier that we would encounter ticks and
chiggers during our walks to ponds, glades and food plots for deer and
turkey. I powdered on the sulfur where chiggers like to roam. As for
my fellow hikers, they merely hiked-up their socks over the cuffs of
their pants. The graduate assistants did the same. I have not yet
found out who won the chigger war. As for me, one lone chigger got me
in the ankle on that 9O-degree day. I felt spared.
Both President Keiser and Jim Baker can handle
whatever nature dishes out. Both are avid outdoorsmen who enjoy fly
fishing and hunting.
We saw two flocks of wild turkeys that day. The
momma hen and 12 to 15 poults.
We all agreed the Bull Shoals Field Station will
foster educational programs that promote understanding of southwest
Missouri ecosystems. Full renovation and additions will cost about $2
million. If you wish to contribute to the Bull Shoals Field Station,
contact the Missouri State University Foundation at 836-4143.
For more information contact Dr. John Havel,
Missouri State University, Department of Biology,
Springfield, MO 65804. Phone: 836-5308.
Contact free-lance columnist Charlie Farmer at
1197 E St Court Ozark, MO 65721 or
cjoutdoors318365@aolcom. |
Bull
Shoals Field Station
