Bio Station to hold open house
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POLSON — The UM Bio Station will hold its annual free open house on Friday, Aug. 4, inviting the community in for an afternoon of learning about Flathead Lake and enjoying some outdoor fun.
The Bio Station holds annual open house events thanks to the current director, Jim Elser. He believes when locals meet with Bio Station scientists, they are able put faces to the station’s work and can ask questions to better understand their efforts on behalf of Flathead Lake. The station focuses on research, monitoring, education and outreach platforms for limnology, ecology, and environmental science. While they couldn’t hold open houses for a couple years due to the pandemic, they’re working on getting back to pre-COVID levels of attendance.
“It’s just an opportunity for people to stop by the station,” Communications Manager Ian Withrow commented. “We have all our different areas of science expertise and will have exhibits available for people to go and check out … We have a lot going on throughout the afternoon.”
Some of the day’s activities will include hands-on learning stations for kids of all ages. Activities include close-up encounters with stream, pond, and lake creatures, updates from experts on the front lines of aquatic invasive species (AIS) prevention, and a sneak peek at drone and GIS mapping research. Additionally, special guests such as the Owl Research Institute and the AIS detection dogs from Montana Black Dog Services will pay a visit to share their specialties and show off their skills. Research boat tours will be offered throughout the afternoon. As a bonus, local food vendor Montana Mountain Dawgs will offer a free hot dog to the first 100 attendees.
The Bio Station is not involved with lake levels, however they are prepared to talk about and answer questions regarding that issue as it is at the forefront of many people’s minds.
“This is a really nice opportunity for people to just kind of filter in and out, and we get to kind of connect with people on a slower timescale where we’re not rushed by some kind of program or anything like that,” Withrow explained. “It’s an open-door policy. If you haven’t been to the bio station, I encourage you to come out … it has a real summer camp vibe to it, and the tone of the open house is along those lines, so it should be fun.”
For questions about the UM Bio Station, people can call 406-872-4500 or go online to: www.flbs.umt.edu. To learn more about the upcoming open house and the events being offered, visit: www.facebook.com/UMFLBS
