NOTE:
The following account of the program, partially from a paper on the
history of Coweeta by Douglass and Hoover (1988), summarizes the past
research efforts that contributed to Coweeta's research history.Interest in the forest environment in the Southeast began more than 90 years ago with lively speculation about the influence of forests on climate and public health, and on soil and stream flow. In a widely-read 1909 government publication, Major-General Chittenden of the Mississippi River Flood Control project argued that forests were of no significance in flood control. The framers of the Weeks Act of 1911, which led to the creation of the national forests, did not concur in this view. The controversy reached a high pitch at the time of the disastrous 1927 flood on the Mississippi River. Almost everything written on the favorable effects of forests on stream flow was under scrutiny.
On July 1, 1921, the U.S. Department of Agriculture established the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station (now called the Southern Research Station) in Asheville, NC. When active research began in 1926, the program included silviculture, reforestation, and management of forests, as well as forest protection, forest economics, and stream flow and erosion control.
At that time, eastern forests were extensively grazed by livestock. Steep mountain land was cleared and planted with corn. Logging was done by sub-contractors who had little regard for erosion from roads and skid trails. Erosion on worn out and abandoned land in the Southeast was region wide. Such land was not wanted by private individuals and could be bought for delinquent taxes. At the time, the rank and file of professional foresters knew little about forest effects on climate and soil. They were unaware of such stream flow variables as total water yield, maximum peak discharge, minimum flow dependability, or sediment loading.
Fortunately, E.N. Munns, of the USDA Forest Service Branch of Research, had observed and written about land erosion in California prior to his assignment to Washington. Supported by E.H. Clapp, then Chief of Forest Research, Munns became an effective advocate of better land use and of more in-depth research into influences of forests on water yield. In the mid-1920's, the Branch of Research requested a Civil Service examination for ecologists with Ph.D. degrees and selected two applicants. One of them, Charles R. Hursh, began work at the Appalachian Station in 1926 and directed the Stations Division of Forest Influences until his retirement in 1954. Some of the earliest work dealt with erosion control and methods of stabilizing soil on road-banks and abandoned agricultural land, and with the study of forest humus types of the region. At the Bent Creek Experimental Forest near Asheville, plots were established in 1932 to study surface runoff from five representative types of forested or agriculture cover, and an infiltrometer was first used successfully with artificial rainfall. These early studies led to an examination of water movement through the soil profile and to the need for complete watershed instrumentation to provide continuous measurements of stream flow and precipitation.
Based on this need, Hursh sought suitable areas conducting comprehensive studies on watershed management. John Byrne, Forest Supervisor of the Nantahala National Forest, suggested a number of possible sites, and the Coweeta drainage basin near Franklin, NC, was finally selected as the most suitable. In 1933, 3,900 acres (later increased to 5,750 acres) of the Nantahala National Forest were set aside as the Coweeta Experimental Forest. Station Director C.L. Forsling later issued instructions that no manipulations of the forest cover were to take place at Coweeta until after a period of standardization of the gaged watersheds. He assigned full responsibility for administration of the Coweeta basin to the Division of Forest Influences.
Thus, the stage was set for a greatly expanded program in watershed management research. Programs of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration during the Great Depression years provided the manpower and funds for expansion of research activities. An intensive program of weir construction began in 1934 along with a network of 56 standard rain gages, numerous ground-water wells, and meteorological stations.
By 1939, calibration of watersheds at Coweeta was far enough along on some catchments to begin treatments, and a period of experimentation began. Since then, scientists have conducted a variety of watershed experiments at Coweeta. Early studies documented the harmful effects on soil and water resources by mountain farming, woodland grazing, and unrestricted logging. These early land-use demonstrations were publicized in the highly successful film "Waters of Coweeta." Scientists designed and implemented water-yield experiments to measure effects on stream flow of complete or partial forest cuttings and conversion from one type of cover to another. The knowledge gained in these early experiments was the basis for a pilot test of intensive multi-resource management of southern Appalachian forests and has provided guidelines for watershed management and best management practice standards on public and private lands alike. More recent experiments utilizing cable logging methods and advanced forest road designs have demonstrated improved methods for managing steep mountain lands to minimize damage to soil and water.
Coweeta's early emphasis on how land management practices affect the hydrologic cycle has evolved into a broader interdisciplinary effort that couples hydrology within an ecosystem context. The culmination of the first 50 years of research at Coweeta was synthesized at a 1984 Symposium at the University of Georgia and later published in a book entitled "Forest Hydrology and Ecology at Coweeta."