History of Watershed Research at the Forest Hydrology Laboratory, Oxford, Mississippi

Originally by Jack Waide with updates by Daniel A. Marion
USDA Forest Service
Southern Research Station
Last Updated 19 June 2002


Watershed research began in Mississippi after Forest Service scientists, conducting survey and plot studies in Mississippi in the 1920s and 1930s, established northern Mississippi as the most severely eroded landscape in the eastern U.S. and demonstrated the beneficial role of forest cover in reducing erosion. The Forest Service established the Tallahatchie Research Center in the late 1940s at Oxford, now the Forest Hydrology Laboratory. Early research at Oxford was closely associated with the Yazoo-Little Tallahatchie Flood Prevention Project, an exceptionally successful land rehabilitation-reforestation effort in north-central Mississippi. Research provided information on revegetation, soils, and management of erosion control plantations. Small research watersheds were established in the late 1950s to determine runoff and sediment yields from various cover types to evaluate the rehabilitation program. Fortunately, these same watersheds were in place as the research program shifted towards the evaluation of nonpoint sources of water pollution in forests during the 1970s. They provided baseline sediment data and were used to measure the effects of forest practices on water quality. Subsequently, additional research watersheds were instrumented and numerous studies initiated with cooperators in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas to expand this water quality research. Laboratory and plot studies were initiated to study the movement of water and nutrients into and through forest stands, not only providing knowledge about water quality, but also possible changes in long-term site productivity. In the 1980s, additional studies were started to evaluate the potential impacts of acidic deposition on soils, nutrient cycling, water quality, and long-term productivity.

Watershed research in Arkansas began in the late 1930s at the Irons Fork Experimental Forest. This initial effort work was discontinued, but in the late 1950s, new watershed, timber and wildlife management research was initiated in northern Arkansas, first with Harrison and then Fayetteville as the headquarters. Concern for adequate streamflow for recreation and municipal water supplies in the Ozark and Ouachita Highlands lead to a watershed research program designed to determine the impacts of forest and management practices on streamflow volumes. Research watersheds were established in the Ozark Plateau, Boston Mountains, and Ouachita Mountains. Intensive measurements of soil moisture and other parameters were conducted to develop hydrologic prediction models for each area. As water quality became a priority concern in the early 1970s, cooperative studies with Weyerhaeuser Company, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and Oklahoma State University were initiated to evaluate clearcutting, site preparation-planting, selection harvest, and forest roads as nonpoint sources of water pollution. Herbicide impacts on water quality were also evaluated. In the 1980s, nutrient inputs and the potential impacts of acidic deposition were also studied, and research on warm water fisheries was initiated.

Declining budgets and commonality of research led to merger of the two watershed research projects into a single project in 1983. The combined project was headquartered at the Forest Hydrology Laboratory in Oxford and continued research on the effects of forest management on water quantity and quality, and the effects of acidic deposition. Research on warmwater fisheries and its response to forest management practices was added to the project mission in 1989.

In 1996, the staff at the Forest Hydrology Laboratory was made part of the Center for Bottomland Hardwood Research (SRS-RWU-4155), a new Forest Service integrated research effort headquartered in Stoneville, MS, and focusing on lowland and wetland ecosystems. With this latest reorganization, research emphasis at Oxford has shifted to studies of aquatic ecosystems and how they are affected by forest management activities. Subsequently, responsibility for watershed research in Arkansas has been assigned to the Forest Service research Project headquartered in Monticello, Arkansas (SRS-RWU-4106).

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