Earl H. Frothingham: portrait of a pioneering researcher and the first director of the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station.

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service faced an important decision in 1921. In July, the agency established the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station (AFES), headquartered in Asheville, NC. The immediate objective of the AFES was to study methods for increasing productivity of the heavily cutover forest lands that were being acquired for national forests. The agency needed a highly qualified forester to administer the new experiment station, someone with a research background and knowledge of local forest conditions as well as being a capable administrator and good communicator. Ultimately, that forester and first station director of the AFES was Earl Hazeltine Frothingham.

Parent Publication

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

Citation

McNab, W. Henry; Bragg, Don C. 2023. Earl H. Frothingham: portrait of a pioneering researcher and the first director of the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station. 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: 289-298.