Experiment Station > Research Centers

AU Natural Resources Education Center

Center is temporarily inactive.
Camden, Wilcox County, Ala.

In 2008, the Alabama Ag Experiment Station gave what long had been the Lower Coastal Plain Substation a  new name—the Auburn University Natural Resources Education Center—and a new mission: to provide research and demonstration sites aimed at teaching private landowners and natural resource professionals how to properly manage and conserve the state’s valuable indigenous assets.

Research Emphasis Areas

Environmental and natural resources

History

The AU Natural Resources Education Center (formerly known as the Lower Coastal Plain Substation)  was established on a 1790-acre site in Wilcox County in 1949.

Forestry and livestock received major research emphasis at this substation throughout its history. Potential use of irrigation in pasture beef production programs and evaluation of bamboo as a pulp crop were among the unique areas of study.

The Lower Coastal Plain Substation was one of the five substations established in Alabama during and a few years after World War II: Upper Coastal Plain in 1944, Piedmont Substation in 1945, North Alabama Horticulture Substation at Cullman in 1948, Chilton Area Horticulture Substation at Clanton in 1948 and the Lower Coastal Plain Substation at Camden in 1948.

History adapted from the following publications:

Kerr, N.A. 1985. A History of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station: 1883-1983. Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn, Alabama.

Yeager, J. and G. Stevenson. 2000. Inside Ag Hill: The People and Events That Shaped Auburn’s Agricultural history from 1872 through 1999. Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn, Alabama.

Last Updated: October 13, 2011