Southern Research Station Headquarters - Asheville, NC
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[Images] Five photos of different landscape

Compass December 2006
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Compass is a quarterly publication of the USDA Forest Service's Southern Research Station (SRS). As part of the Nation's largest forestry research organization -- USDA Forest Service Research and Development -- SRS serves 13 Southern States and beyond. The Station's 130 scienists work in more than 20 units located across the region at Federal laboratories, universites, and experimental forests.



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Issue 7

Life on the Edge

by Joe Kays
Annie Hermansen-Baéz in her office on the University of Florida campus.
Annie Hermansen-Baéz in her office on the University of Florida campus.
(Photo by Joe Kays)

Growing up on California’s central coast, the world was a laboratory for Annie Hermansen-Báez, thanks in large part to her father, an elementary school teacher.

“Whenever we went anywhere he was always pointing out things about the natural world to me and my two brothers, whether we wanted to hear about it or not!” Hermansen-Báez says. “We camped all over California and lived out in the country for many years. My brothers and I always had snakes and lizards as pets, along with many dogs, cats, chickens, and geese.”

After earning a degree in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1991, Hermansen-Báez joined the Peace Corps and spent 3 years in Paraguay teaching subsistence farmers about agroforestry systems, crop diversification, and soil conservation techniques; helping them construct soil erosion barriers and utilize green manures; and sharing tree nursery and organic vegetable gardening practices. (...continued...)






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