An incomplete roster of the Southern, Appalachian, and Southeastern Forest Experiment Stations, 1921-1995

Abstract

For the first 75 years of its century-long history, the Southern Research Station (SRS) consisted of two separate forest experiment stations. Both the Southern Forest Experiment Station (SOFES) and the Appalachian Forest Experiment Stations (AFES) opened in July 1921; after multiple boundary shifts and a renaming of the AFES to the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station (SEFES) in 1946 (SEFES 1946), they were finally merged in 1995 into the SRS. During these decades, many hundreds of people worked for these research stations. When most people think about staffing in U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Research and Development, they probably think of the scientists first, and then the administrators. In part, this is because most of the documentation available on station staffing focuses on the scientists and higher-level administrators. A complete roster of those who worked for the stations would have been dominated by people in supporting positions, whether field assistants, professional staff, clerks, business administrators, human resource professionals, maintenance staff, secretaries, analysts, equipment operators, laboratory technicians, or many other jobs. However, there is virtually no way to reconstruct full rosters because the needed personnel records simply no longer exist.

Parent Publication

• Celebrating 100 years of forest science: an abridged history of the Southern Research Station

Citation

Bragg, Don C.; McDaniel, Virginia L. 2023. An incomplete roster of the Southern, Appalachian, and Southeastern Forest Experiment Stations, 1921-1995. In: Bragg, Don C., ed. Celebrating 100 years of forest science: an abridged history of the Southern Research Station. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-272. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station: 235-258.