Located near the company’s corporate headquarters in Beavercreek, Ohio, the Fondriest Center for Environmental Studies boasts many opportunities for members of the community, educational organizations, researchers, engineers and policymakers. The field station provides an ideal location for company engineers and scientists to field-test new sensor technologies.
The station includes a variety of data logging and telemetry platforms for collecting and transmitting weather and water quality data. The on-site conference center displays real-time data, which is also available on a company-sponsored web datacenter – WQData LIVE. Local schools visit the field station to learn about environmental fieldwork and data collection, where college students use the area for both undergraduate and graduate field research. The field station staff includes several company employees and a team of naturalists, who explore and document native plants and wildlife.
Whitetail deer, coyote, waterfowl, raptors, and other wildlife make their home near the field station and in the surrounding areas. Habitat restoration efforts include the installation of bluebird and duck boxes, the maintenance of native wildflower meadows, the construction of a fish structure, invasive plant removal, and boundary planting of native grasses. A honey bee apiary located on the property encourages pollinators and, in turn, helps to maintain a balanced ecosystem, while the field station pond provides habitat for native fish, frogs, snakes, and turtles. A close eye is kept on water quality with an array of automated sensors.
Members of the Fondriest staff as well as local citizens serve at the station as naturalists who manage these habitat restoration initiatives. The group documents intriguing flora and fauna, which are uploaded and presented in the photo gallery of the WQData LIVE web datacenter alongside real-time weather and water quality measurements taken on-site.
Events available for registration are listed at right.
Select from the events below for more information and registration.
To schedule an event at the field station, such as a school field trip or environmental monitoring training session, click the link below.
To schedule an event at the field station, such as a school field trip or environmental monitoring training session, click the link below.