User:GeeBee60/Malheur Field Station

Malheur Environmental Field Station

Located in the middle of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County Oregon, the Malheur Field Station began in the 1930's as a depression-era U. S. Federal construction project of the Civilian Conservation Corps. By 1969 the more than two dozen CCC buildings two miles south of the Refuge Headquarters were in disrepair and the Federal Government declared the facility surplus.

A series of conversations and proposals led to Pacific University heading a consortium that acquired, renovated, and furnished the facility, and in 1971, offered the first courses. At its peak the consortium grew to 22 colleges and universities, and both students and faculty flocked to dozens of undergraduate and graduate level programs-- and to the remote and casual setting. The field courses, on everything from archeology to avian ecology to photography to creative writing, typically in three week long blocks, filled the summer calendar. MEFS was an exciting informal atmosphere in a remote location, where the "big city" of Burns, population less than 3,000, was 30 miles north. MEFS's infusion of out-of-area cash and customs into the sparsely populated region at times caused friction among the local residents.

During the spring and fall MEFS served as host to everyone from graduate students and sojourning educators to wayfaring birdwatchers and ecotourists, as well as to a vigorous population of yipping coyotes and biting insects. Ultimately the various programs were not enough and the station struggled. By the late 1980s, with many budget and educational changes in schools, as well as the retirement of MEFS's charismatic long-time director Denzel Ferguson, the consortium participation had dropped to far fewer schools. The facility and program was sold to The Great Basin Society and its name was shortened to Malheur Field Station. Over time GBS rebuilt the number of consortium schools, to almost as high as its peak.

In 2018 GBS undertook a fundraising campaign with a goal of $250,000 for facility renovations, an amount which by November 2018 they had largely met. They advertise that they offer a diversity of educational programs, acreditted and not, throughout most of the year, and "serve colleges and universities, grade k-12 school groups, organizations (including scout groups), families, and individuals. [Their] educational programs include Naturalist Services, flexible and fixed-date Workshops, short courses, and Road Scholar adventures."