Mason Plans Environmental Education/Research Center Near Woodbridge

By Emily Yaghmour

The funding request George Mason recently submitted to the General Assembly contains a provision for an environmental education and research center near Woodbridge. Located on the bank of the Occoquan River just a few hundred feet from the Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge, the center will be part of a planned community at Belmont Bay. Still in the early stages of development, the Belmont Bay community already has a train station, and a 158-slip marina is under construction. The developers, Preston Caruthers and Larry Wilkes, have plans for a large hotel/conference center at the site, in addition to homes, offices, and shops.

George Mason staff members are working with Caruthers and Wilkes on the construction of a building the university plans to lease for the center. Plans call for state-of-the-art facilities, including office space for six faculty members, full-sized research laboratories, and a shared lab equipment room, as well as rooms for observing, analyzing, and storing research samples. Dock space at Belmont Harbor also will be available for the boats the center uses on the river for research and educational activities. In addition, plans exist for a public aquarium and science center, which may become a branch of the Virginia Science Museum.

Four graduate classes will be taught entirely at the center, and many more classes will include field trips to the center to use its equipment and facilities. The center also will provide educational activities for students from local school systems. George Mason faculty members and students will conduct research on the functioning of natural ecosystems and on the ways human beings impact those systems.

The idea for a center like this developed on several fronts. For many years, biology professor Don Kelso has been teaching a graduate class on estuarine and coastal ecology. Much of the class time is spent on a small boat out on the Potomac River, where students learn to gauge ecological conditions by collecting and analyzing water, sediment, and aquatic animal samples. About five years ago, a group of students enjoyed the class so much that they told Kelso he should expand it into an environmental program for students from local primary and secondary schools.

The professor agreed but said to do that, he would need a bigger boat and a place to dock it. His students challenged him to make it happen and offered to help him. "We called together a meeting at one of the local high schools . . . and we talked about what we could do, and over the next half a year or maybe longer, we formed a group called the Potomac Watershed Network," says Kelso. It was the search for a dock that led the group to the Belmont Bay developers, who readily agreed to allow them to dock in Belmont Harbor.

The modest goal of finding a place to dock a boat quickly evolved into an ambitious plan as more and more people became involved. Since the mid-1980s, Chris Jones, another Mason biology professor, had been nursing the idea of a university research center focused on the Potomac River. "Currently, there is not a research center or institute located on the Potomac and directed toward understanding its ecology," says Jones. "Since the Potomac is so central to the D.C. metro area, we felt that a major research facility was merited here." So Jones and Kelso approached the Belmont Bay developers about building facilities for the university's use, which they agreed to do.

Developers Caruthers and Wilkes had already been working with Dennis Shiflett of the Woodbridge Institute for Sustainable Ecosystems. Shiflett has worked with developers across the United States to lessen the impact of development on natural ecosystems. Because of the location of the development, on the bank of the Occoquan and so near a national wildlife refuge, Shiflett pointed out ways the developers could use environmental programs to increase the economic potential of the area. When Shiflett heard about the center George Mason faculty members were seeking to establish at Belmont Bay, he recognized an opportunity for partnership. It was he who suggested providing a public aquarium in addition to allocating space for the university's educational and research center.

All plans, of course, are contingent on funding. "The timing of it--how fast and how far our programs develop--will depend on funding from the General Assembly and from grants," says Prince William Campus executive vice president Randall Edwards.

But Don Kelso is optimistic because of the enthusiastic response the proposed center has received. Provost David Potter says, "We're excited about the prospects at Belmont Bay." According to Daniele Struppa, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), "The center is a major component of George Mason's new thrust in the environment, and CAS is proud to be leading the way in its development."