On December 28, 1988, Dr. Edwin Kessler, a retired meteorologist and former head of the National Severe Storms Laboratory, donated a portion of his family farm to the University of the Oklahoma, Norman Campus.   The farm, known officially as the Kessler Farm Field Laboratory (KFFL), is located in McClain County, approximately 28 km southwest of the University of Oklahoma campus.  The original parcel covered 88.9 ha.  On December 30, 2004, Dr. Kessler donated the remaining 52.5 ha of the farm to the University of Oklahoma.

General Description

KFFL is sited on the gently rolling hills of the Permian Redbed region of Central Oklahoma. The vegetation is diverse with grasslands dominating the slopes and hilltops, and riparian woodlands dominating the lowlands around streams and creeks.  The lower slope areas support tallgrass prairie dominated by Andropogon gerardii, Schizachyrium scoparium,
Sorghastrum nutans, and Panicum virgatum.  More upland areas are covered by mixed grass vegetation in which Bouteloua hirsuta, B. gracilis and Buchloë dactyloides are also found.  Riparian areas include Acer negundo, Populus spp., Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Cornus drummondii, Gymnocladus dioicus, Carya spp. and Juglans spp.  There are areas of scattered upland forests, outliers of the Crosstimbers forest of central and eastern Oklahoma, dominated by Quercus stellata and Q. marilandica.   Soils of the area are primarily from the Nash-Lucien series, a mixture of loamy, mixed, thermic shallow Typic Haplustolls and coarse-silty, mixed, thermic Udic Haplustolls and are considered to be moderately fertile.  Mean annual temperature is 16°C with a January minimum of 3°C and a July maximum of 28°C.  The mean annual precipitation is 96.7 cm.  May is typically the wettest month (13.5 cm) and January is generally the driest (3 cm).