Integrated Planning of Research, Education and Facilities in the Texas Hill Country for the Llano River Field Station-Texas Tech University

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The Texas Tech University is awarded a grant to support strategica planning for the Llano River Field Station (LRFS). LRFS is the largest ( 400 acres) inland field station in Texas, located in the biologically diverse Central Texas Hill Country, and bisected by the headwaters of the South Llano River. Objectives are to develop an integrated master plan for LRFS that will: facilitate, support, and attract excellent basic and applied science by the local, regional, national and international scientific communities; provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and K-12 education; provide opportunities for education and outreach to the Texas public; and to develop partnerships with the state and federal natural resource and education agencies. Specific activities include: 1) two separate, but integrated facilitated workshops to incorporate input from the regional and national scientific and educational community; 2) identification of the interests and specific roles of partner institutions, and 3) information-gathering visits to successful FSML facilities. The location, small size and mission of field stations gives them the capacity to remove barriers between education and research present on main campus, and between academic units, disciplines, scientists and non-scientists, and K-12 schools. This project will link a highly successful K- 12 Outdoor School 4 day/3 night educational experience with a series of basic and applied research projects dealing with water/watersheds, exotic species, range management, natural resources and ecological restoration amenable for study and curriculum units of the TTU Outdoor School.