Forest Resources Research and Education Center

The Forestry Experiment Station was organized on the same basis as other stations in 1972, with headquarters at the UT Arboretum located on part of the 2,260-acre Oak Ridge Forest. The name was changed to Forest Resources Research and Education Center in 2005. Forestry field units in East and Middle Tennessee comprise the center and serve as a laboratory for research in forestry and wildlife. In addition to the Oak Ridge Forest, the other forests are the Cumberland Forest, in Morgan and Scott Counties (8,000 acres which had been heavily strip-mined) acquired by UT in 1936 and transferred to the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1947; the Friendship Forest (680 acres) established on land leased from TVA in 1947 in Hamilton County, near Chattanooga; and the Highland Rim Forest (860 acres) established in 1964 in Franklin County. The McIntire Stennis Forestry Research Act of 1962 paved the way for full development of Forestry Research and Education Centers.