Spring 2001
Spring 2001
The 2001 OBFS Annual Meeting will be held at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station from Thursday, 20 September 2001 through Sunday, 23 September 2001. Please note the correct dates – the registration packet mistakenly listed the meeting beginning on Friday. UOBS was founded in 1949 and is one of the largest field stations in the south-central portion of the U.S. We are located on the north shore of Lake Texoma, a >88,000 (surface) acre reservoir, which was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps in the 1940’s with the completion of the 3.5 mile long Denison Dam at the confluence of the Washita and Red Rivers, directly on the Texas/Oklahoma border. UOBS is a year-around research, teaching, and educational facility, and is a research unit of the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences. We are located approximately 18 miles south of Madill, Oklahoma, and 17 miles north of Whitesboro, Texas. Additional meeting details and updates will be made available on the UOBS website.
FIELD TRIPS
Two pre-meeting field trips are planned for Thursday, 20 September 2001. The
trip to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife refuge will be limited to 35
persons and the trip to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History/Arbuckle
Mountains trip will be limited to 25 on a first come/first serve basis. Participants
for both trips should plan on arriving on Wednesday evening (19 September),
as an early start on Thursday will be needed to allow for returning to the Station
prior to the evening meal. The Station commissary will provide sack lunches
for the field trips. It is recommended that participants wear comfortable, sturdy
clothing and shoes, and bring sunscreen, hat, water bottle, insect repellant,
camera and binoculars.
The Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge
field trip includes approximately 3.5 hours driving time in each direction.
University vans will be used for the field trip. The trip should be well worth
the time as the Wichitas are home to more than 50 mammal, 240 bird, 64 reptile
and amphibian, 36 fish, and 806 plant species. This preserve consists of three
different biotic districts and hiking will be allowed in research areas not
open to the general public.
The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History opened its doors to a new 195,000
square foot facility on 1 May 2000. In 1899, the Territorial Legislature of
the future state of Oklahoma mandated the founding of this museum. The visit
to the Museum’s five galleries will also include a behind-the-scenes tour
by a Museum faculty/staff member. On the return trip, a stop is planned in the
Arbuckle Mountains, the oldest mountain range in North America. This mountain
range is located approximately halfway between Norman and UOBS. (Driving time
between UOBS and Norman is approximately 2 hrs, each direction.) The stop in
the Arbuckles should be an excellent opportunity for hiking, photos, and viewing
of the local flora and fauna.
Additional short field trips are planned during
the course of the regular meeting. These trips will include boat trips on Lake
Texoma, visit to Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, fossil hunts, hiking, and tours of
the UOBS research facilities.
The 2001 OBFS Annual Meeting will officially begin
on Thursday, 20 September, at 16:30 with a reception, dinner, welcome session
and the traditional slide show of new stations or new facilities. Any new OBFS
member station, or old member with new facilities is welcome to bring a MAXIMUM
of 10 slides for the slide show. Business meetings will begin early on Friday,
21 September. Along with the usual business meetings and committee reports,
there will be two special topics. There will be presentations and demonstrations
by satellite and ground-based system representatives on “Wireless Internet
Connectivity for Field Stations” and presentations and discussions with
invited specialists on “Recruiting Minority Undergraduates to Field Stations”.
Concurrent sessions will be held on “The Research Coordination Networks
(RCN) in Biological Sciences Program” at NSF (Networking/Data Management
Committee), “Principles for Sustainability of Field Station Facilities”
(Facilities and Administration Committee), and “Friends of the Station”
– Building a Membership. Ongoing programs and issues will include: FIRST,
OBFS Film Project, Operations Manual Project, NEON, The OBFS-NAML Congressional
Briefing, IBOY, LTER/OBFS Networking Efforts, and LTER KDI Project.
The meeting would not be complete without a few
social events. A “country and western” dance will be held at the pavilion
with music provided by a local band (“real” local as the singer is
also our Facilities Manager). There will be an authentic Choctaw meal prepared
by representatives from the Choctaw Nation, along with story-telling and some
history regarding the foods prepared for the meal. However, the highlight of
the social activities will be the infamous OBFS Auction to be held on Saturday
evening (22 September).
The Meeting will conclude after lunch on Sunday,
23 September.
Meeting Accommodations
The University of Oklahoma Biological Station
can comfortably accommodate groups like OBFS of up to approximately 100-120
people. Accommodations include both apartment and dormitory rooms along with
the “pit” (large barracks-like room which sleeps 45). Late registrants
beware – the “pit” awaits! The apartments will sleep up to five
people and have a sleeping area, living area and private bath. Dormitory rooms
also have a private bath and sleep approximately 8-12 people. All the apartments/dorms
have air conditioning and most have some type of heating. Some rooms do have
a refrigerator available in them, but cooking is not allowed.
Our campus includes a cafeteria, which is operated
by the University of Oklahoma Food Services. Meals are served buffet style and
the dining room can comfortably seat approximately 100 people at a time. An
outside patio with picnic tables is also available during meals if weather permits.
Meetings will generally be held in the Library
where internet connections and a variety of audio/visual equipment are available,
including a LCD projector, slide projectors, pull down screen, overheads, TV,
and VCR. Our teaching facilities include six classrooms, which will accommodate
small group meetings. One of these classrooms is set up as a computer lab and
will be open to participants of the OBFS meeting. Most of the computers in this
classroom are a little slow on operating speed, but are connected to the internet
via a T-1 and fiber optics line and will be available for checking e-mail.
Items to Bring
Visitors will need to bring all their own bedding,
bath linens, and toiletries. Weather in Southern Oklahoma in mid-late September
is generally still quite warm (mid-80s to low 90s during the day), but pleasant
at night (lows in the 60s). Swimming in the lake is feasible, so bring a bathing
suit. For the cooler evenings, a jacket or sweater would be a good idea. In
addition to comfortable clothing, you should bring walking shoes/hiking boots,
hat, sunscreen, insect repellant (along with the normal pests, we also have
fire ants), water bottle, binoculars, rain jacket/poncho, camera, and flashlight.
At the top of the list should be items to donate for the OBFS Reserve Fund Auction.
The Auction Committee encourages members to contribute unusual items of interest
for scientific, cultural, regional, historical (natural or otherwise), or personal
reasons. Please limit field station advertising items to at most a single t-shirt,
cap, poster, etc…
Travel
The station is located approximately 85 miles (1 hour 45 minutes) north of the
Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) International Airport, and approximately 150 miles (2
hours 30 minutes) south of the Oklahoma City (OKC) Airport. Given the more flexible
flight schedules and proximity, it is advisable to book your flights into and
out of DFW. UOBS can be reached by car via I-35 (we are located 40 miles east/southeast
of Ardmore, OK, and a similar distance east/northeast of Gainesville, TX). Maps
will be sent with registration confirmation and
are available on our website. A car pool list will be posted on our website
and a mailing list (OBFSMEETING_L@lists.ou.edu) is available.
A complete meeting agenda and details will be posted
to our website (http://www.ou.edu/uobs/OBFS2001.htm) as they become available.
Please address questions to Lawrence (Larry) J. Weider at ljweider@ou.edu (405-325-7438)
or Donna Cobb at dcobb@ou.edu (405-325-7430). We look forward to seeing everyone
this fall!