Southern Research Station Headquarters - Asheville, NC
![[Images] Five photos of different landscape](/images/imstr1.jpg "[Images] Five photos of different landscape")
Issue 13
The Harrison
Seed for reestablishing southern pine forests
Soon after the 1933 establishment of the DeSoto National Forest in Mississippi, the Federal Government designated a 4,111-acre portion as the Harrison Experimental Forest (Harrison). The site was selected because it represented the 3 million acres of clearcut and second-growth forests in the State as well as the 31 million acres of coastal land with similar soils and topography. The scientists stationed at the Harrison fell under the direction of the Mississippi Bureau of Plant Industry but worked in cooperation with the Southern Forest Experiment Station (SFES).
Some of the earliest studies on the Harrison involved fire behavior and wood treatment. Scientists introduced water spray as a preprocessing preservative, a technique that is still used in sawmills today. Early trials of fence posts treated with various preservatives have been revisited every year since 1939.
The problems with planting and growing trees and reestablishing forests soon became the primary focus for research at the Harrison. The Southwide Southern Pine Seed Source Study was started on the experimental forest in 1951, and continues today. The study has provided seed source guidelines to managers and landowners for more than 50 years.
In 1953, SFES assumed responsibility for the facility. Three years later, the Harrison became headquarters for the SRS Southern Institute of Forest Genetics, whose research on the inheritance of growth, form, and pest resistance has since guided tree improvement programs across the South. (See also page 35).
Long after the seed source study results were reported, the plantings for that study continue to be useful for new research, such as efforts to determine the genetic basis of pest resistance, variation in wood quality, and effects of climate on pine growth. Most recently, Harrison’s scientists have begun evaluating the original genetic variation of the plantings with a vision toward long-term gene preservation.
