Over 350 scientific papers and publications have been produced from research conducted at the William Beebe Tropical research Station, also called Simla. Over the years hundreds of scientists and research groups have travelled from the four corners of the globe to study plants, amphibians, insects and much more at the rustic wooden structure. The station is named after researcher William Beebe, who migrated to Trinidad in the late 1940s. Here he set up the last of six research stations and spent the rest of his life. Beebe, who was a researcher for the New York Zoological Society, sold the centre to the society for $1. The centre was subsequently donated to Asa Wright in 1974. The building is efficiently hidden in the forested area of the Arima valley. A winding moss- and plant-covered road leads to the centre, which has 11 high-ceiling rooms. They include a laboratory, kitchen and large open common room sparsely furnished with chairs, a bookshelf and a desk, used by Beebe when he lived there in the 1950s.
The building is still used for its original purpose, as a research lab. Unlike during Beebe's life there, there isn't a constant presence of curious minds attempting to discern the secrets of the surrounding wildlife. "We still get scientists and research students here, but not to as great an extent as before," said Atkin Isaac, conservation officer at the centre. Aside from providing facilities for scientists, the research station also hosts children from schools for nature projects. Isaac said Simla had recently partnered with Widener University in Pennsylvania and Atwell's Educational Institute and St Mary's Children's Home for a project called Sharing the Environment. "What happens is the students from Atwell's and St Mary's will come here and will use netbooks and the Skype program to share their experiences with the environment with students in Pennsylvania," explained Isaac. "We are looking at these types of projects to maximise the use of the facility, as not just a place to conduct research, but a place where people can come to learn about the environment." The few changes that have taken place on the property include Wi-Fi connectivity. When Beebe began the research station in 1949, his only neighbour would have been Asa Wright, the original owner of the Asa Wright Nature Centre, higher up the mountain. The centre now owns and manages the Simla research station.
Isaac said Asa Wright would house some of the researchers whenever Simla didn't have room. Today, however, the Arima valley is significantly more polluted, and with a quarry next door and three others in the area, Isaac says the number of animal species seen in the past has diminished. The quarry still poses a danger to Simla's 211 acres, thanks to the noise from blasting, which scares animals, as well as water pollution from quarrying activity. Isaac said despite this, Simla was still being used, as some researchers had developed a lifetime affiliation with the property. "Some researchers look at the nearby quarrying as an opportunity to observe how animals respond to the disturbance to their environment. Others look at it with disappointment," Isaac said.
