Tag: History

Serendipity Has Guided Research Forester Henry McNab’s 50-Plus-Year Career

by Patty Matteson, SRS Science Delivery  • 
Please take a moment to meet the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station’s most valuable resources through the Faces of Innovation series. Spending Christmas with the Forest Service led Henry McNab, research forester, to become one of SRS’s longest serving employees. McNab started his career in Fort Myers, Florida, working for Jim Bethune measuring pine trees around Christmas…  More 

Civilian Conservation Corps’ Rocky Road in Louisiana

by Patty Matteson, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
The Work of the Civilian Conservation Corps: Pioneering Conservation in Louisiana by U.S Forest Service Southern Research Station emeritus scientist James P. Barnett and Louisiana State University library director Anna C. Burns provides a vivid account of the history, projects, and people involved in the New Deal program. While most states were benefitting from the passage of…  More 

Webinar on December 9th: Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
African American rural land ownership has declined significantly over the past 100 years, threatening critical family and community assets. The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service, seeks to address this problem through the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program. A team…  More 

The Olustee Experimental Forest

by Carol Whitlock  • 
The 3,135-acre Olustee Experimental Forest (Olustee), located in northeast Florida was established in 1931. Part of the Osceola National Forest, the experimental forest served as the primary study site for a number of U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) units for almost 60 years. In the beginning, research on the Olustee focused mostly on…  More 

The Delta Experimental Forest

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Located in Washington County, Mississippi, the 2,600-acre Delta Experimental Forest (the Delta) was established in 1945 by the U.S. Forest Service and is owned and managed by Mississippi State University (MSU). The Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research conducts research on the forest under a long-term cooperative agreement. Until the 1970s,…  More 

To Plant a Billion Pine Seeds: Reforestation in the South

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
In the early 20th century, steam-powered logging equipment came to the longleaf pine forests of the Coastal Plain, and the “golden age of lumbering” began.  When the sawdust settled, millions of acres in the region – especially along the Western Gulf Coast – were barren. “In many areas, the harvest was so complete that no…  More