The College of Forestry at Stephen F. Austin State University can trace it roots to establishment of the East Texas Branch Station experimental forest in 1945 by Congress. Within a year of the experimental forest's establishment SFA had gained approval from the state legislature and the Department of Forestry was created. Through expansion at SFA and within the Department, by 1966 Forestry was able to move from Department status to becoming a School. It was not until 1992 when the Board of Regents won approval of reorganizing SFA's administrative structure did Forestry gain the classification as a College. In 1996 the at the 50th anniversary of the founding of the College of Forestry at SFA it was announced that the Board of Regents had renamed the College the Arthur Temple College of Forestry as the "legendary accomplishments of the East Texas pioneer lumberman Arthur Temple have paralleled the growth and excellence of the College of Forestry." In 2005 the HUES GIS Lab, which at the time was part of the Department of Political Sciences and Geography, was merged with Forestry. As of 2011 the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture was the home to Forestry, Environmental Science, and Agriculture.Note written by Greg Bailey