This award supports a strategic planning effort by the Eagle Lake Field Station (ELFS), a field site with developed housing for short- and long-term visits, research lab space, and teaching/conference facilities located at the confluence of the Cascade, Sierra, and Great Basin ecosystems. Owned by California State University at Chico and supported in part by the University of California at Davis, the station was originally developed on shoestring budget by dedicated educators and students to provide an example of grassroots science and science education. Because of its location, the station provides significant opportunities for research and education programs in biology, geosciences, environmental sciences, archaeology, and recreation. In part because it has never had a formal development or strategic plan, the station faces serious institutional and fiscal challenges in becoming a productive site for collaborative, integrated efforts in national or international ecological research. The planning effort will develop a Strategic Management Plan through multiple steps, including several workshops of current and potential field station users (scientists and educators) to solicit input and to promote the station to the research and education community of northern California and environs. As part of the effort, a site master plan will be developed using site assessments by students in courses ranging from civil engineering, architecture, and environmental sciences / planning and a professional design consultant who will help in producing the final master plan. The effort will also include development of administrative and business plans to identify sources of funding for future development and operations. These various elements of the planning will employ models suggested by the Organization for Biological Field Stations, with input solicited from an external panel of directors of other stations.
Eagle Lake is one of California's last original, remnant large lakes. It and its environs present unique opportunities for aquatic and terrestrial ecological research and monitoring. Over the past half century, the station has had a consistent record of published research, and has contributed to the training of numerous students in ecology and other sciences. With the aid of this award, the station be able to continue that tradition, and to promote the integration of research, training, teaching and learning at multiple levels.
