A mapped history of the Southern Research Station

Keywords: forestry, forest science, Forest Service, pine, hardwoods, timber industry
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 62

Abstract

The roots of today's Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service can be traced to the July 1, 1921, opening of the Appalachian and Southern Forest Experiment Stations. Unlike some of the Forest Service's earliest research locations, these southern experiment stations were designed to support wide-ranging research programs in mountain hardwoods and coastal plain pine forests. Both of these forest types had been critically important to the economic recovery of the South following the Civil War; as such, southern forests supported many communities and whole industries during that half-century. But as these forest resources dwindled, federal and state governments realized they knew very little about this economic engine. Between 1921 and their merger in 1995, the forest experiment stations of the South helped to restore landscapes and transform the timber industry from one of exploitive lumbering to sustainable forestry that has been for decades the world's largest supplier of commercial wood products. This series of maps shows both the history of administrative change as well as the growing awareness of the socioeconomic and ecological importance of the South's forests. These maps (and others not shown) also offer a promise to support new research directions on issues as varied as large-scale species abundances, carbon sequestration dynamics, and historical development patterns.