The Susanville Research Center was established in 1956. It was a unit of the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, headquartered in Berkeley. It was one of nine maintained by the U.S. Forest Service throughout the United States.

Research work in the area had been well under way with grazing experiments in Harvey Valley in 1936 and more about that in a future post. In addition, there was the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest near Halls Flat that was established in 1937. The latest addition was the Swain Mountain Experimental Forest, north of Westwood. An item of focus at Swain was the management of red and white fir forests. It should be noted that originally fir had no economic value, but with the depletion of pine trees, thinking had to be adjusted.

The center’s research covered a variety of aspects including watershed management to wildlife habitat improvement.

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Local anglers may find this is of interest. The sunfish is a non-native species of California. In certain ways, introduced late. The first one found was in a private reservoir in Mecca, Riverside County in 1939. Its origins were believed was introduced by a Mr. Sheets who obtained the fish from the East Coast. What came next baffled fishery biologist. The next catch occurred on July 4, 1942 when members of the Tubbs family caught seven in the Susan River near Litchfield. From that time forward the fish slowly were found in other waters of California.

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