(Posted September 4, 2001)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Juniata College will host an open house at its Raystown Field Station featuring a presentation on the college's new field station by the architectural firm designing the facilities from 1 to 7 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 9.

The event is free, including transportation to the station and a picnic dinner, and open to the public.

Juniata College vans will transport visitors from campus to the field station. The vans will leave at 1 p.m. from in front of Ellis College Center and will return at least once to pick up any latecomers. Chuck Yohn, director of the field station, asks that all those interested in the open house call (814) 641-3572 to RSVP their plans to attend. "This is to get an accurate count of how many visitors to expect so we can have enough food on hand," Yohn explains.

The picnic dinner will be around 5 p.m.

Before dinner, there will be several presentations:

--Claudia Albertin and Alan Popovich, architects with Hoffman and Popovich Architects, LLC, based in Boalsburg, will give a detailed talk and presentation of the plans and drawings for the new Raystown Field Station, which will start construction in 2002. The architects will show renderings of how the new buildings will look and outline a timetable for construction.

--Juniata biology student Clay Lutz, a junior from Altoona, Pa., will give a presentation on turtles. Lutz and other Juniata students are currently researching the nesting patterns and habitat of a map turtle population in the Juniata River near Mount Union.

--There will be a research presentation on an Army Corps of Engineers project to provide wooden fish habitat structures in Raystown Lake, presented by Andy Watson, a junior from Lititz, Pa.

--There also will be a presentation on maple sugaring.
Raystown Field Station is in a 665-acre reserve in the valley and ridge province of the Appalachian Mountains and offers visitors access to the numerous aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems that inhabit the area. The current main facility of the Raystown Field Station is a remodeled 18th century farmhouse.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.