The new Shortgrass Steppe (SGS) Research and Interpretive Center (RIC) is located eight miles north of Nunn, CO, midway between Greeley, CO, and Cheyenne, WY. The station is at the edge of over 200,000 acres of public lands, rolling grasslands that support livestock grazing, as well as pronghorn antelope, prairie songbirds, and raptors. The area lies at the heart of current debates about livestock grazing, suburban encroachment, threatened bird species, prairie dogs, and emerging infectious diseases such as bubonic plague and West Nile virus. Students and researchers have been studying the grasslands at the research site since 1939 and now work on every continent of the globe, as well as serve as scientists and managers here in the Western U.S.
Since 1998, SGS researchers and staff, with the support of National Science Foundation, Colorado State University, University of Northern Colorado, and our partners at the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), have been working to build a modern facility that will further increase our capability for excellence in scholarship and education. The new SGS RIC buildings include a premier classroom/conference center and new comfortable housing for up to twenty people, all with a state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure to provide easy to use and reliable computing resources and access to historical and current data and publications. The RIC facilities are designed for running workshops and have two five-bedroomed houses to support visiting scientists, land managers, and students who stay at the field station. We plan in the future to build additional houses and a research laboratory for our scholarship activities. The entire station will represent the world-class activities at the site, and give the broader scientific community further capabilities to conduct research, education, and outreach.
The design of the new state-of-the-art facilities can be described as ecologically sensitive with architectural features that are compatible with the rolling hills and short statured vegetation of the surrounding prairie. The buildings are nestled into the east side of the hill to take advantage of wind protection, but rise sufficiently that the classroom/meeting areas and living rooms in the houses have unobstructed views of both the Rocky Mountains to the west and the grassland bluffs and shortgrass steppe to the east. The views from inside the buildings are amazing and it is not uncommon to see herds of antelope riding along the contours of the land and raptors hunting in the prairie dog town below. The proximity and accessibility to the ecosystem, off a sheltered patio, presents a unique opportunity for educators to use their surroundings and gives students a true sense-of-place in the prairie.
We are excited to welcome you as our guests, and SGS staff is ready to support new research and educational activities, so please check out our new digs and spread the word. Plan your next meeting with us in mind. If you are interested in using the SGS RIC, please contact us at (970) 491-4996.