The Department of Biology is located in the Natural Sciences Building, and in the adjacent Stillwell Building.

These facilities are next to WCU's Hunter Library, the most complete library in the western part of the state. In addition to its own collections the library provides computer access to the catalogs of many other university libraries and one-day delivery of titles from two of them.

Departmental facilities available to undergraduate and graduate students include:

• an herbarium of more than 25,000 specimens;
• greenhouse facilities;
• a plant biotechnology laboratory;
• instrumentation for research in phytochemistry and biochemistry;
• an aquatic research facility equipped for live animal studies;
• a mammalian cell culture facility;
• Nikon C1 Scanning Laser Confocal Microscope;
• Zeiss photomicroscope with bright field, phase, Nomarski, and incident fluorescence capabilities;
• Applied Biosystems 7500 RT-PCR machine;
• 3130 Applied Biosystems Genetic Analyzer Capillary Sequencer.

Near campus, the Wolf Creek Biological Preserve, Highlands Biological Station, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Tuckaseegee River system provide an extraordinary outdoor laboratory which supports student course work and research. Coming soon is Pinnacle Park, a county natural area.