FSML: New Housing for Researchers, Faculty, and Students at Highlands Biological Station

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A grant has been awarded to Dr. Robert Wyatt of the Highlands Biological Station, an interinstitutional center of the University of North Carolina administered by Western Carolina University, to construct new housing for visiting researchers, faculty, and students. Since its founding in 1927, HBS has served to facilitate research on the biota and ecosystems of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Located in the mountains of southwestern North Carolina near its borders with Georgia and South Carolina, the region is the wettest in eastern North America, receiving 80 to 100 inches of precipitation per year. Because of the varied topography and soils of this unglaciated area, it is a hotspot for biodiversity, especially of groups such as salamanders, fungi, spiders, tree species, and land snails. The Station has a long and distinguished history as a base of operations for biological research, graduate training, and public outreach. Beginning in the fall of 2001, select undergraduates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's new Carolina Environmental Program will spend a semester in residence at HBS. Currently, HBS can house up to 38 people at one time, and the Station often operates at capacity during the summer months. A constraint on the programs in research and education is lack of suitable space for faculty teaching courses or senior investigators who wish to bring their families. Moreover, most of the existing housing is not winterized. NSF support will enable construction of a small complex of four two-bedroom apartments, completed in two phases. In the summer these units will be used to house teaching faculty and senior researchers. During the academic year they will serve as the living quarters for groups of up to 16 students from the Carolina Environmental Program. Each unit will include about 787 square feet of living space, with one unit modified to provide handicapped access. The availability of this added, flexible housing will enhance our ability to attract the very best faculty to teach courses and the very best biologists to establish long-term research programs based at HBS. The new dormitory will also provide much more suitable, winterized dormitory space for use by teams of undergraduates who will do their capstone training at HBS in biodiversity and land preservation. These students will also do internships with local government and non-government agencies, such as the USDA Forest Service and Highlands Land Trust. Availability of this new housing will also enhance the ability of HBS to accommodate speakers in our free, public lecture series at the Highlands Nature Center and in our annual Conference on Landscaping and Gardening with Native Plants. Indirectly, this new housing will increase flexibility in scheduling teacher training workshops, as it will free up existing dormitory space for other uses, such as teacher housing. Thus, all efforts in research and education at HBS will benefit directly or indirectly from the availability of new housing.