Canceled: KU Field Station marks 75th anniversary with Visitors’ Day April 27
Editor's note, April 26: This event has been canceled due to expected inclement weather. The event will be moved to fall 2024, with a new date announced after Sept. 1.
LAWRENCE — In celebration of its 75th anniversary, the University of Kansas Field Station will open its core research area from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 27 for its first public Visitors’ Day in more than 20 years. Members of the public will be welcomed behind the scenes to tour restricted-access research areas.
Stations will be set up along a ¾-mile gravel “research road” from the Armitage Education Center to the Frank B. Cross Reservoir. Participants may walk at their own pace (the entire route or just part of the way) and talk with researchers, who will discuss their work with visitors.
Restrooms will be available inside the Armitage Education Center, and limited-edition 75th anniversary shirts will be available while supplies last.
Visitors should check the Field Station’s Facebook and Instagram pages or the KU Calendar event page for updates in case of inclement weather.
The Field Station’s 1,650-acre core research area is headquartered at 350 Wild Horse Road, about 15 minutes north of downtown Lawrence. This area was initiated as a biological field station in 1947 with the arrival of Henry Fitch, herpetologist, at KU and the establishment of the 590-acre tract now known as the Fitch Natural History Reservation.
The 3,200-acre Field Station also includes the Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve and the Anderson County Prairie Preserve. It is managed by the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, a KU research center housing a variety of environmental research labs and remote sensing/GIS programs in Takeru Higuchi Hall, Smissman Labs and the West District greenhouse.