The Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program is a collaborative research enterprise between the University of Georgia Research Foundation and the USDA Forest Service Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory. In 1968, the long-term emphasis on hydrology at the Laboratory was expanded to include factors regulating the composition,organic matter production and turnover, and biogeochemistry of forest and stream ecosystems. The agreement between University of Georgia and the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, was first signed in 1968 and has been the basis for their partnership in national and international research programs for over 40 years. These have included the International Biological Program, the TIE Experimental Ecological Reserves Program, the International Hydrologic Decade, and the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program. Most significant, however, has been collaboration on the Coweeta LTER. First funded in 1980 and one of six original sites in the US LTER Network, Coweeta LTER field operations are based out of the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory. Since 1994, research has evolved and expanded to include fundamental ecological and socially relevant research in the southern Appalachian region.
