FSML: Planning for the future of the Pymatuning Lab of Ecology

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The Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (PLE), located on Pymatuning Lake in northwest Pennsylvania, is the University of Pittsburgh's field station. PLE has been a site of research and education in biology for 85 years. PLE's facilities and resources have been used by educators and researchers from over three dozen universities and colleges in the last five years, resulting in numerous scientific publications. Due to a large recent turnover in faculty with ecology-related research interests at the University of Pittsburgh, a near-term need for renovation of lab space capable of accommodating new researcher groups, and a need for the expansion of housing facilities to accommodate growth in PLE's education mission, now is an opportune time to plan for the future of PLE. This project will support the development of a new Master Plan, with input from PLE's research, education, outreach and conference stakeholders. Strategic planning activities to be undertaken include site visits to other regional field stations and attending the annual Organization for Biological Field Stations meeting to explore collaborations and learn from the successes of peer field stations, hosting facilitated meetings with stakeholders to discuss the state of each PLE mission and opportunities for their improvement, and producing a new 10-year Master Plan to guide efforts to improve PLE programming and facilities over the coming decade. As PLE enters a new phase of growth that will necessitate programmatic changes, facilities renovations and new construction, the goal of this planning process is to focus the station's limited resources where they will produce the most impact on advancing PLE's core missions. For more information see http://www.biology.pitt.edu/facilities/pymatuning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.