The USDA Forest Service Santee Experimental Forest was established in 1937 as a 2,468-ha site for silvicultural research involving hydrology, soils, and vegetation. Over the years, Forest Service (FS) scientists and others have compiled a long-term database that can now be accessed via this web portal. Our data fall into three major categories: hydrology, climate, and land resource data.
Stream Flow
Access data »The Santee Experimental Forest contains four gauged watersheds, draining 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order streams. Watersheds WS 77 (established in 1963) and WS 80 (established in 1968) are 1st order watersheds configured as paired watersheds, with WS 80 being the reference system and WS 77 the treatment watershed. Watershed WS 79 (established in 1966) is a 2nd order watershed containing WS 77 and WS 80, plus some additional land. Watershed WS 78 (established in 1964) is a 3rd order watershed situated largely on the Francis Marion National Forest and contains the land draining into Turkey Creek. Stream flow data for each of these watersheds are available.
Water Table
Access data »Water table depth within WS 79 has been measured using a network of shallow groundwater wells over the years. The original network consisted of 24 wells installed in WS 77 in 1964 and monitored manually. Monitoring of this network was discontinued in 1971. A second network of manual wells was installed in WS 77 (42 wells) and WS 80 (34 wells) in 1992 and monitored until 1995. Since then a subset of wells has been instrumented with automatic water level recorders that provide data with a finer temporal resolution. Transect wells have also been installed to assess the water table depth or hydrologic gradient for specific studies. Wells instrumented with automatic water level recorders have also been installed in WS 78 since 2006 (in areas representative of specific soil series).
Water Quality
Access data »The Santee Experimental Forest contains four gauged watersheds, draining 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order streams. Watersheds WS 77 (established in 1963) and WS 80 (established in 1968) are 1st order watersheds configured as paired watersheds, with WS 80 being the reference system and WS 77 the treatment watershed. Watershed WS 79 (established in 1966) is a 2nd order watershed containing WS 77 and WS 80, plus some additional land. Watershed WS 78 (established in 1964) is a 3rd order watershed situated largely on the Francis Marion National Forest and contains the land draining into Turkey Creek. Stream water quality data (nutrients, cations, anions, DOC, pH and other physical parameters) from each of these watersheds are available.