FSML-Research and Facilities Planning for the St. Croix Watershed Research Station

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The St. Croix Watershed Research Station (SCWRS) is the biological field station of the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM). The facilities of the SCWRS are located along the St. Croix River and within the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway at the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin, 48 km northeast of St. Paul, MN. The SCWRS provides opportunities to conduct research on a large midcontinental river system and associated habitats. Through its parent facility, the SCWRS provides a powerful public education outlet for field science. The SCWRS was established in 1989 and has greatly expanded its physical facilities, staffing, and research activity in the intervening nine years. An initial strategic planning effort was conducted in 1992. The resulting plan guided the development of a modern 6200 ft Research Center and a year-round housing facility for visiting scientists, both completed in 1995. The SCWRS has expanded its permanent staffing complement from three to nine positions, including five research positions. The scientific staff were specifically recruited to create a core research program focusing on landscape-level problems in land-water interaction. The current research staff have expertise and training in aquatic biology, limnology, hydrology, soil science, chemistry, and GIS management. This base of scientific expertise complements a visiting researcher program that focuses on ecology and biology. The SCWRS has entered a phase of accelerated program growth, which will increase its ability to make significant contributions to national and international field research. The original facilities and research plan is over five years old, and a new vision is needed to carry the SCWRS into the future. Planned program initiatives coupled with facilities changes and equipment procurement will be needed if SCWRS is to meet its full potential as a regional and national field faci lity. The SCWRS has now reached a critical point of accelerated development that will set the future of long-term use and development at the site. This project will support a planning effort that will set a new SCWRS research and facilities trajectory for the future. Funds would be used to support the development and implementation of a facilitated planning workshop. The final product will be a new research and facilities plan that will guide facilities development, sting, and research of the SCWRS for the next ten years and provide a long-range vision for research and program development.