(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
Highlands Field Site
Written By: Winter Gary | Issue: 2021/09 – September
Shuttered in 2019, the Highlands Field Site springs back to life with a new team of students/scholars led by Dr. Rada Petric.
Did you know that the Highlands Biological Station serves as a field site for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment?
The Highlands Field Site program began in 2001 as an immersive, semester-long opportunity for students to explore real-world environmental issues through a combination of course work, field trips, group research projects, and internships with local organizations.
This program was paused in 2019 and has now returned to the Station!
In August, a new cohort of HFS students arrived at the Station to explore the ways humans affect the natural environment and the tools used to measure, understand, and communicate these impacts.
Over the course of the semester, they will be immersed in various field experiences, gaining knowledge and skills to prepare for future careers in Environmental Science, Biology, Journalism, Public Health, and more.
Guiding the students along this journey is the first-ever Director for HFS, Dr. Rada Petric.
Dr. Petric is a Postdoctoral Researcher from UNC-Greensboro, a multi-recipient of the Highlands Biological Foundation’s grants-in-aid of scientific research, and was a co-instructor of the Station’s Southern Appalachian Mammals course this past June. This summer, she received the Foundation’s Ralph M. Sargent Memorial Scholarship for her work studying the effects of water quality on bat activity and community structure in freshwater along a developmental gradient. She is scheduled to be a featured speaker for the Foundation’s Zahner Conservation Lecture Series and will present Did Covid-19 Lockdown Alter Urban Bat Activity Patterns? A Case Study in North Carolina on Thursday, September 2, at 6:00 P.M. in the Highlands Biological Station meadow.
This year, the Highlands Biological Foundation committed to helping the HFS program return to the Station by providing funding to UNC-Chapel Hill to support this new HFS Director position.
Not only will Dr. Petric be charged with leading the HFS program, but she will also be implementing long-term research projects at the Station that students will participate in each fall. By supporting the Foundation, our members contribute to exciting programs such as this – programs that are focused on the future of students and the environment.
