The McMurdo Dry Valleys site hosted National Science Foundation director, Dr. Arden Bement, who was in Antarctica in January 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Scott Base, the New Zealand station in Antarctica. McMurdo Station, the main US logistical hub in Antarctica, and Scott Base are within a few miles of each other and the two programs have collaborated on logistics since the 1950s.
Dr. Bement enjoyed a helicopter tour of the LTER site and visited the main camp and the field lab facilities. A New Zealand group led by Prime Minister Hon. Helen Clark and Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mt. Everest, also visited the LTER site.