Our Mission

  • To provide information, methods, and guidelines to implement and evaluate ecosystem management concepts, practices, and effects on water, soil and forest resources.
  • To improve knowledge, baseline data, and predictive methods that are required to evaluate effects of the atmospheric environment on forested watersheds in the southeastern U.S.

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News & Events

Bringing science from groundwater to surface

On May 3, 2022 the USDA Forest Service hosted a virtual Santee Experimental Forest Research Forum. More than 40 scientists, researchers, and other partners came together to discuss projects occurring on the Santee Experimental Forest.


The fate of wood: Dead wood and the carbon cycle

Trees are part of the carbon cycle. When they die, they go on storing carbon for a while. But as the fallen trunks and large branches decompose, that carbon moves into the soil and the atmosphere. USDA Forest Service researcher Carl Trettin and his colleagues have designed a new study to show how wood-carbon moves into the soil.


Appalachian stream fish diversity: The more the merrier!

The relationship between diversity and productivity in ecosystems has fascinated scientists for decades but is not well understood in freshwater fish communities. USDA Forest Service scientist Andrew Dolloff co-authored a study that found a positive relationship between fish production and fish biodiversity.

Archived News & Events