The Savannah River Site is an 803-km2 Department of Energy (DOE)
facility located on the Upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina,
near Aiken, SC. The site is bordered on one side by the Savannah
River. Approximately 10% of the site is developed for DOE
industrial activities; the remaining 720 km2 is primarily
forested. The entire SRS became the nation's first National
Environmental Research Park (NERP) in 1972. Within the SRS NERP,
DOE also maintains a network of research reserves (DOE Research
Set-Asides). These areas preserve representative samples of all
major SRS biological communities and serve as reference sites to
evaluate the impacts of site operations. Three resident research
organizations are present on the SRS: the University of Georgia
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL), USDA Forest Service -
Savannah River (USFS-SR), and Savannah River National Laboratory
(SRNL). As a research unit of UGA, SREL's primary function is
ecological research and education. SREL provides independent
evaluation of th