Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station Herbarium

The Forest Service Herbarium (USFS) was founded by William A. Dayton in 1910 in Washington, D.C. It has moved 11 or 12 times over the years. In 1970 it was transported to Ft. Collins, Colorado and housed at the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. In 1982, the 75 steel cases with specimens (20 tons) were moved to the Aven Nelson Memorial Building. Using a "cherry picker," each case was raised to a third-floor window and it was moved into place in the herbarium. The collection is on indefinite loan to the University. With over 120,000 accessions, it is rich in material from national forests throughout the country. It represent the efforts of hundreds of Forest Service employees over many decades. Each specimen has a seal indicating ownership and they are intercalated with those of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium. Type specimens were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution (US) prior to its move west. The main collections of the Costa Rica and Ecuador forest survey parties are deposited at the Field Museum (F). Subsequent curators of the USFS include Dr. Frederick J. Hermann (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1938; biography, Michigan Botanist 27: 59-73) and Dr. Charles Feddema (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1966).

Materials contributed by Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station Herbarium (USFS):

• Specimens