Critical Zone Exploration Network

The Calhoun Experimental Forest was originally selected as a research site to learn how to stabilize agriculturally disturbed landforms, watersheds, and whole landscapes.  The first director and founder of the Calhoun Forest, Dr. Lou Metz, selected the Calhoun "as the worst of the worst" and was confident if US Forest Service researchers could learn how to slow accelerated erosion, promote soil fertility, and establish forests at the Calhoun, they could do such anywhere in the South.  Fifty years later, some gullies are still active despite the best efforts of the USFS, but most of the eroded Southern Piedmont lies beneath a blanket of green.