The University of Wisconsin Trout Lake Station is awarded a grant to add a new conference room facility onto the existing main laboratory building. The 1500 square-foot wing will contain a 1050 sq. ft. multipurpose assembly room, restroom facilities, a kitchenette, and a multiple use basement. The assembly room will have a rated capacity of 70 people (chairs and tables) or 150 people (chairs only). This addition will allow the Trout Lake Station to host meetings, workshops, outreach events, and classes. Researchers at Trout Lake have been leaders in various regional, national, and international research groups including GLEON, NEON, and LTER. The new facility at Trout Lake will benefit these programs by providing adequate on site meeting space. The new addition will similarly enhance the Station's ability to conduct outreach activities for K-12 and the general public.
The Trout Lake Station benefits science and society by 1) creating new knowledge, including policy-relevant research such as that on long-term dynamics of lakes, impacts and removal of aquatic invasive species, and human-lake interactions, 2) providing opportunity and training for students, including more than 100 undergraduates spending significant time at the station (e.g., publication of 21 graduate student theses, and direct contact with more than 1250 elementary school students - including more than 200 Native Americans - since 2004) and 3) providing outreach to the general public, including community participation in developing scenarios of the future of the Northern Highland Lake District, presentations to community groups, and a strong presence in the local, state, and national print, radio, and television media. The addition of this new facility will allow the Station to continue to serve as a national and international resource for research and outreach on aquatic resources and their interactions with terrestrial systems and society.
This award, made through the Field Stations and Marine Laboratory (FSML) program, allowed the construction of a roughly 1500 square foot addition to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Trout Lake Station. The addition consists of a 1050 square foot multipurpose room with a capacity of 70 people, a kitchenette, bathroom facilities and storage basement. The award also included supplements to support two undergraduate summer fellowships through the Research Experience for Undergraduates program. The goal of the addition was to provide a meeting space for research groups to discuss results, plan next steps, and identify potential new projects. The addition also allows researchers at Trout Lake to interact with the public through outreach events, such as open houses, public presentations, and media days. Since the dedication of the addition in early 2013 we have hosted numerous research meetings of NSF-funded projects, including the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research project, the Global Lakes Ecological Observatory Network, and the Cross-Scale Interactions macrosystems biology project. Each of these projects has strong intellectual merit and the new multi-purpose room provided an excellent meeting space in which each project could make progress toward its goals. Broader impacts of the addition include our ability to host numerous outreach events for the public, schools, agencies, and NGOs. For example, we hosted the Ecological Society of America’s Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity, and Sustainability program field trip for undergraduate students from across the country, the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership program where citizens are trained to become local leaders in lake-related conservation efforts, field trips for local third and seventh grade students to learn about lake science, and a career options discussion for local high school students. We also hosted several "media days" in which we invited the local and statewide media to the Trout Lake Station to learn about the many research projects taking place. Members of the media could then interview project leaders and participating graduate and undergraduate students. Summer fellowships supported by this award provided opportunities for two undergraduate students to gain valuable experience. The students were majors in Life Science Communication and they helped lead outreach efforts, including open houses, media interactions, and communication via social media. Collectively, the addition to the Trout Lake Station made possible by this award allowed us to provide a highly functional facility to enhance world-class research, communicate the results broadly to the public, and foster participation in science by the public and underrepresented groups.
