LSU-Shreveport has dedicated its new research station and a classroom at an open house. Director Gary Hanson says the Red River Watershed Management Institute has officially opened the Anderson Watershed Research Station and the Jay Greenleaf Watershed Outreach Classroom.

red river bridge
loading...

"We'll start classes coming up this fall and we'll actually be able to have a field station available right there at the lake, where we can go ahead and go out and collect samples from the water side of it...we look at the water quality."
The station borders Old River Lake at the Red River Education and Research Park.
It features an indoor classroom, covered porch for outdoor classes, a laboratory, office and restrooms.
Hanson says the new building is greatly needed to help educate students.
"We'll teach the students how to use the equipment and can do it from a very close vantage point there, we have a floating dock. it's right beside the facility...a 24-foot boat that we can take out onto the lake."
In 2009, Anderson Oil and Gas contributed $100,000 for the construction of the institute's field station facility.
"We can study all these different media, the water itself, the sediments and the plants, so we can get to work out there in the field rather than coming all the way back to campus."
The Red River Institute is made up of faculty working in partnership with local, state, and federal government agencies. It provides information necessary for developing resource management strategies, focusing on the natural resources within the Red River Watershed.

More From News Radio 710 KEEL