One of the newest features at Tyson Research Center is the weather station, a 33-foot tall tower available to visitors on April 28's Tyson Trails Day.
By Tony Fitzpatrick
April 20, 2001
With spring in full force, researchers, area naturalists and historians at the University's Tyson Research Center are offering the St. Louis region their expertise in a variety of nature and historical topics and field trips at Tyson Trails Day, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. April 28.
There will be nature trails and history trails to explore at the 2,000-acre biological field station about 20 miles west of St. Louis. Nature trails include tours of Mincke Quarry Cave, ecology of Tyson ponds, a mushroom foray, a snake walk, a butterfly walk, a bird-watching hike and crafts for children.
One of the newest features at Tyson Research Center is the weather station, a 33-foot tall tower available to visitors on April 28's Tyson Trails Day. |
History trails include a visit to the Mincke Hollow Mining town, a Native American tepee encampment, history of Route 66, a nature art and photo show of works created at Tyson, storytellers and more.
This family event is open to the public. Admission, which includes all activities, is $8 per car, $15 for a full shuttle van, and $5 for a car with one person. Shuttle vans will take participants to remote activities or hikes. Food and drinks will be for sale.
"We think the Tyson Trails Day offers abundant activities, displays and presentations for people of all ages in the St. Louis area," said David Larson, Tyson field station manager. "It is an opportunity to celebrate the season and the region's natural and historical culture. Those attending are bound to enjoy a beautiful natural area and learn something new about the natural world and the place Tyson holds in the region's history."
The 2,000 acres that constitute Tyson Research Center have experienced a diverse and interesting history, spanning from the last Ice Age to present. The area has been used by early Native Americans, farmers, miners, railroads, timber harvesters, the U.S. military and St. Louis County Parks before its present use as a biological field station and research center.
One of its newest features, available to participants at Tyson Trails Day, is the new Tyson Research Center Weather Station, which Larson manages. Installed in October 2000, the 33-foot tall tower is situated in a large, relatively flat field so that trees do not interfere with wind currents, solar radiation or other weather measurements. The area is typical of the research center and its oak-hickory forest with interspersed grassy areas. The weather station is 570 feet above sea level.
The weather station model is based on a Campbell Scientific Inc. Datalogger, "the Cadillac of weather instrumentations," according to Larson. Before coming to the University last spring, he had been field station manager for 14 years at the San Dimas Experimental Forest in southern California's San Gabriel Mountains.
"It's a critical component of field research at Tyson because the many projects here are reliant on weather data, which can be an indicator of when trees flower, for instance, or when hibernating animals such as snakes are ready to come out," Larson said.
Every second, the weather station samples air temperature in degrees Celsius, relative humidity, wind speed and direction and solar radiation. Average values are recorded at 10-minute, 60-minute and 24-hour intervals. It also provides maximum and minimum values. Precipitation is recorded in 0.01-inch increments as frequently as one-second intervals.
While many people assume all of the research at Tyson is biological in nature, researchers from the earth and planetary sciences department in Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Art and other University departments regularly use the site. For instance, first-year graduate student Mike Keller will be showing on Trails Day artwork he created at Tyson. Keller was the recipient of a Crescent Hills research grant (the whole region was known as Crescent Hills earlier in the century) that enabled his work there. Stan Strembicki, professor of art, also will display photographs on Trails Day.
Other University faculty and students participating in Trails Day include biology graduate students Corey Anderson and Doug Creer, who will conduct the snake walk, and Richard W. Coles, Ph.D., former Tyson director, who will conduct the bird-watching hikes.
Jonathan B. Losos, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and director of Tyson Research Center, Friends of Washington University Tyson Research Center and the Tyson Field Science Program, which annually reaches out to thousands of area schoolchildren and teachers, are hosting the event.
Other participants include the Missouri Department of Conservation, Saint Louis Zoo, Route 66 State Park, Wild Canid Survival and Research Center, the World Bird Sanctuary, Museum of Transport, Missouri Mycological Society, North American Butterfly Association Society and Webster Groves Nature Study Society.
For more information on the event, call Joyce Duncan at 935-8430. To learn more about the Tyson Research Center visit: http://www.biology.wustl.edu/tyson.
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