Emporia State University (ESU) manages eight sites (5 – 81 ha) that serve as outdoor laboratories for our students, faculty, and visiting scientists. The sites provide regional representation of major ecological communities, including tallgrass prairie, forest, streams, ponds, and wetlands. The sites have been used for decades, with the oldest site, the Ross Natural History Reservation, having been acquired in 1958. Common uses of our Natural Areas include field courses in ecology, botany, zoology, geospatial analysis, soil science, geology, and hydrology. Recent research has included investigations of hydrogeology of the Neosho and Cottonwood River basins and the effects of shrub encroachment on carbon dynamics in tallgrass prairie. The former has included long-term monitoring of rivers and groundwater at ESU's on-campus Hydrogeology Teaching and Research Station. Hydrologic conditions at a newly acquired, riverine wetland site in the Flint Hills are also currently under investigation.