Kansas State University is awarded a grant to construct a 1,860 square-foot ranch-style house on the Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS). KPBS is a 3,487 ha preserve managed by the Division of Biology at Kansas State University and dedicated to a three-fold mission of long-term ecological research, science education, and grassland conservation. The total number of publications attributed to KPBS is now over 1,300. KPBS is a premier site for grassland research and attracts a variety of researchers, University classes, artists, writers, and visitors from the general public every year. The house will contain a living room, five bedrooms, three private baths, fully-equipped kitchen, and laundry facilities and will increase the lodging capacity on KPBS by 62%. The facility will enable the station to support additional visiting scientists, accommodate the increasing numbers of larger inter-site research groups working on-site, and provide a wider range of low cost on-site lodging options for longer-term visitors. Researchers at KPBS have been leaders in various regional, national, and international research groups including NEON, LTER and STREON. The new addition will similarly enhance KPBS? ability to conduct outreach activities for K-12 and the general public.
The KPBS benefits science and society by creating new knowledge, including policy-relevant research while providing opportunity and training for students. The extensive research efforts on KPBS are linked with numerous educational and training activities for students and developing scientists, from K-12 students to undergraduate/graduate students and post-doctoral scientists. In addition, KPBS reaches approximately 4,300 of the general public annually through its organized educational and outreach programs. The addition of this new facility will allow KPBS to continue to develop as a national and international resource for research and outreach on grassland ecology.
Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) is located on a 3,487 hectare native tallgrass prairie preserve jointly owned by The Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University (KSU). KPBS has been a Long Term Ecological Research site since 1981 and numerous non-KSU investigators come to KPBS to conduct research, which has resulted in a significant increase in the number and proportion of visiting (non-KSU) scientists and students using the site, increasing the strain on our very limited accommodations. We constructed a new 1,860 square-foot ranch-style house (62’ x 30’) with an adjacent storm shelter and porch. The unit contains a living room, five bedrooms (total of 14 additional beds), three private baths, fully equipped kitchen (e.g. double sink, range, oven, microwave oven, dish washer, refrigerator/freezer), and laundry facilities. The availability of the new house has allowed larger groups to stay at KPBS. These larger groups usually consist of a wide range of individuals, including undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs and faculty members, many of whom are under-represented individuals. The increase in on-site lodging also allows more university class visits at KPBS. Such increased opportunities for scientific interactions are critical to the training of younger scientists. The house was completed Nov. 01, 2012. This new house on KPBS will increase the number of individuals who stay on-site. It will allow larger groups to be on-site for longer period of times, fostering collaboration among various research groups. With the larger number of individuals staying on-site, KPBS will benefit from increased visibility through individuals outside the "normal" research community of KPBS. After the house was constructed, we had a news release on the availability of the house (www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/nov12/konzahouse110712.html). A video (http://tinyurl.com/kznhouse) was constructed from pictures of the numerous steps involved with the new house construction on KPBS and sent out over the Konza listserv. Finally, the availability, description of the house and cost of staying in it has been posted on our web site (http://kpbs.konza.ksu.edu/fee_schedule.html).
