Beth Biro

Tyson Natural Resources Coordinator & Staff Scientist

“I get to work on a lot of different projects, involving trees, plants, ponds, and rivers. I collect data for Tyson general monitoring, long term. I have a lot of pond data and aquatic invert data from Tyson and different areas around Tyson. I used to travel around to different conservation areas within a two-hour radius and catalog the biodiversity of the ponds out there. I have that information in a database.”

What is one of the coolest things you’ve seen in the saved records?

“The bat data. We have bat data for the cave that goes back to the early nineties. It has species counts and where the bats were located in the cave. I would like to do something with that. We have plant data, for example, lists of the plants from our glades that were catalogued by former researchers. I'm trying to integrate it into a larger list of plants at Tyson and where they're found and information like that for researchers who come here to reference.

I keep track of what WashU and outside researchers are doing, what they need, help them if they need permits or if they need to be in compliance with the university. And, I help them learn the flora and fauna because a lot of people who come here are not from our area.”

Beth manages landscape and research infrastructure for current and future research conducted at Tyson. Learn more about Tyson natural resources here.