Rice Creek Field Station

Rice Creek Field Station, a unit of the State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego), is dedicated to the support of academic instruction, research, and public service in all aspects of natural history, especially the natural sciences and environmental education.

Located one mile south of SUNY Oswego’s main campus, Rice Creek’s year-round facilities provide opportunities for field-oriented teaching and research. Guiding this effort is the mission of Rice Creek to be a living laboratory for the advancement of knowledge through ecological research, education, and stewardship of the natural world.

Each year, Rice Creek hosts 16+ sections of SUNY Oswego field courses, supports dozens of student and faculty research and creative projects, and offers over 200 programs for public audiences. The support group for the field station, Rice Creek Associates, furthers the station’s mission through service, fundraising, program offerings, and administering the Small Grants program.

Indoor facilities include classrooms, laboratories, offices, a research space, and a collection room. Outdoor facilities include an astronomical observatory with a 16″ telescope, a fully-wired pavilion, and an herb garden. Habitats include a creek, an 8-hectare pond and restored wetlands created by an earthen dam, a spillway/fish ladder around the dam, mature deciduous forests, young deciduous forests, conifer plantations, vernal pools, old orchards, and a patchwork of field plots varying from meadows to old fields to shrublands, that are mowed in a four-year rotation.