Now that combining (or deleting) are back on the table again for the FS organization, I thought I’d try to make a list of all the ones I remember and try to make sure that somewhere there is a complete list. I’m also using the AI a bit so if my info is wrong, let us know in the comments. I’m not addressing forest and ranger district combos, as I think there are too many of them, and they have been covered elsewhere.
The most recent for R&D was the combination of North Central and Northeastern Station into the Northern Research Station. Michael Rains led that effort and he has agreed to write a post about how it went from his perspective. As far as I can tell, that was in 2005-2006. Here’s a story written by Michael five years later. As my old boss Tom Mills used to say “reasonable people can disagree” and you can see that in the comment.
At some point, the Forest Products Lab (which used to be independent) was put under the Northern Station.
1995 Southern and Southeastern Research Stations combined to new Southern Research Station. The Southern Station had a nice write-up last April for their 100th anniversary, they also have a library of digital historic images.
1997 Intermountain and Rocky Mountain Stations combined to new Rocky Mountain Station. There’s a history History of Intermountain.
Any others? Is anyone out there who could write about their experiences with the SE/SO or the INT/RM combos?
A slight but important modification: The FPL was never placed under the NRS. I was the Director for the NRS and the Director for the FPL. No organizational adjustments. I just picked up another assignment. The FPL was and continues to be the national research station for improved biomass utilization tactics.
Very respectfully,
If you go back far enough, the Northeastern and North Central Stations were each combinations of two previous stations. I believe North Central was a merger of the Lake States and Central States stations and the Northeastern a combination of an earlier Northeastern station and the Allegheny station (don’t hold me to those exact names). Also, in the late 1990s “Research Station” terminology replaced “Forest Experiment Station” or “Forest and Range Experiment Station” where appropriate. Some of us, especially those heavily invested in research on experimental forests, were sad for the loss of “Forest Experiment” from the name.