Southern Illinois University Carbondale Expands Environmental Science Program With New Field Station

Southern Illinois University Carbondale has added a new field research station bordering the Shawnee National Forest, expanding the amount of hands-on fieldwork students in its environmental science program can conduct studying forest ecology and watershed health in southern Illinois.

The station, funded through a combination of state capital funds and a private donation from a downstate Illinois foundation, gives students year-round access to water and soil sampling equipment and expanded lab space directly bordering the forest, replacing a much smaller and aging field site that had been in use for more than two decades.

"Being in the field is not an add-on to what we teach here, it's the core of the program," said the chair of SIU's forestry and environmental sciences department. "Every student in our program spends real time collecting their own data in the Shawnee, and the old site was becoming a genuine limitation on how much of that we could do."

The university's environmental science program has grown steadily in recent years as interest in Midwestern forest and watershed restoration work has increased among students pursuing careers in environmental policy and conservation. Faculty said the new field station will allow the program to run two full research sections simultaneously rather than rotating single groups through limited site access.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale, a public university with an enrollment of roughly 10,000 students, has built a regional reputation for its environmental science offerings, drawing partly on its location bordering one of the largest forested areas in the state.