Subhead
Sixteen beds replace the summer-only cabins, which means winter fieldwork stops being a day trip.
Image
Publish date
Year-round accommodation opened at Prentice Coastal Field Station in January: sixteen beds across two insulated buildings, replacing summer-only cabins that had limited winter work to day trips from campus.
The practical consequence is larger than the bed count suggests. The station is thirty-one miles from campus, and a winter day trip means arriving after the low tide and leaving before the next one.
"The most interesting things on this shore happen in winter," said Aisha Tanaka, who has walked the station's transects monthly since 2011. "Storms, cold snaps, the recovery period afterward. We have been sampling the winter record from a car park."
Tom Whitfield, who manages the station, said the change also lets course groups run properly in the spring term rather than compressing field teaching into the summer. "Tide work does not respect a timetable. Now we do not have to pretend it does."
The buildings sleep eight each, with a shared kitchen and drying room — the last of which Whitfield describes as the single most requested item in fifteen years of managing the site.
Course groups book through the station manager. Research use outside teaching terms is arranged with the department.
People
Departments
Programs