Kaskaskia Biological Station
The Kaskaskia Biological Station (KBS) is located on the shore of Lake Shelbyville near the inflow of the Kaskaskia River. Facilities include office space, microscope lab, bunk space for up to eight people, workshop, boat shed, and 3,000 square foot wet lab. The wet lab contains two environmental control chambers, recirculating systems, and space for raceway and tank experiments. Most of our field operations are conducted from this station. Field equipment available to staff and graduate students include electrofishing boats, electric seines, backpack electrofishing unit, beach seines, larval push-nets, ponar grab samplers, and zooplankton nets. KBS staff includes up to five technicians. Temporary internships are available during the summer.
Ridge Lake Biological Station
Ridge Lake Biological Station is located on the shore of Ridge Lake, inside Fox Ridge State Park, Charleston, IL. Ridge Lake is an approximately 6 hectare reservoir that we both manage as a public fishing lake and use as a research lake for a variety of experiments. Ridge Lake is open to public fishing from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend every year. All anglers on Ridge Lake participate in a creel survey that has been conducted every year on this lake since 1942, one of the longest running fishing creels in the world. Every summer, we hire interns to operate the creel survey at Ridge Lake.
Sam Parr Biological Station
Sam Parr Biological Station is located adjacent to the Stephen A. Forbes State Recreation Area in Marion County, Illinois. Sam Parr is our primary experimental facility with two indoor wet labs and drainable, outdoor ponds available for experiments. This facility includes nine 0.4-ha, five 0.13-ha, and ten 0.04-ha ponds. Summer internships are available every year, with onsite housing available for up to six people.