1. Don’t make them come to you!.…forest research steps out of the Ivory Tower Southern Research Station

2. Forest Service--major programs National Forest System: land & resource management of national forests State & Private Forestry: fire & aviation, cooperative forestry, landowner advice, forest health protection Research & Development: science policy & planning; resource valuation & use; vegetation management & protection; wildlife, fish, watershed Southern Research Station

5. Station Profile $43 million appropriated budget, with an additional $2.7 million in “soft” funding $13 million to fund cooperative research 127 paneled scientists (Ph.D.), additional 300 technical and administrative employees 26 research units at 18 laboratory, experimental- forest, and university locations 275 refereed-journal articles, 366 other publications Southern Research Station

6. Breadth of active research Southern Research Station Wood Quality “Sustain Forests and the Values they Provide People.”

7. Southern Research Station Aquatic

8. Southern Research Station Natural Regeneration

9. Southern Research Station Biobased Products

10. Southern Research Station Threatened & Endangered Species

11. Southern Research Station Biological Productivity

12. Southern Research Station Insects and Diseases

13. Southern Research Station Conservation Education

14. 1995 Budget Cuts Lost > 100 employees Closed 5 research units Little support from “friends” 2002 Budget Cuts Outcry from partners Media pressure on Congress Southern Research Station

15. Lessons learned from the mid 90’s Become so tightly enmeshed that you’d leave a big hole in the fabric of the community (science, policy, and local neighborhood) Target customers and find out what they want Concentrate on timely delivery of quality products and services Make science findings accessible to public; value communications as a key administrative function Southern Research Station

16. Landownership in Southern United States Southern Research Station

17. Become enmeshed with community (science, policy, local neighborhood) Established 6 cross-cutting themes to unify 26 research units Collaborated with land managers on region- level assessments Required principle investigators to participate in legislative visits Southern Research Station

18. Identify, target customer segments Hired a marketing specialist Invited non-traditional customers to participate in 5-year planning sessions for research units Designed products to meet specific needs of market segments Southern Research Station

19. Market segments 1) Those who need results to manage their land 2) Those who may or may not use results to influence public land-management policy 3) Those who use results to further science 4) Congress Southern Research Station

20. Specific products and services COMPASS quarterly catalog with featured publications ANNUAL REPORT of research accomplishments State-by-State UPDATES for Senators and Representatives Web-based BRIEFINGS available for Congressional staffers Southern Research Station

21. State-of-art Internet presence Between 20,000 and 40,000 “hits” a day Half million publications downloaded a year Reduction of hard-copy mailings from 75,000 to 21,000 a year Southern Research Station

25. Concentrating on timely delivery of quality products and services Developed a publications evaluation card for feed back on accessibility/quality of science products Offered online delivery of publications, data bases, presentations Collaborating on One-Stop Shopping to give seamless nationwide access to all online publications Southern Research Station

26. Making research accessible to the general public Used Web site to publish scientist profiles and contact information Hired a science writer to concentrate on research “stories” Met monthly to review article galleys and select the best for news releases Helped scientists to incorporate the “so what” into manuscripts, proposals, and briefings Southern Research Station

27. Conservation Education Connection to local communities Appreciation among youth for forests and forest management Interest in careers in forest science Southern Research Station

29. Hypertext encyclopedia--the future Synthesizing 75 years of forest research Six modules, one complete Southern Research Station