The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center is a 2,650-acre Smithsonian campus on the Rhode and West Rivers near Chesapeake Bay that studies coastal environments and the connected forests, farms, wetlands, marshes, and brackish waters of the estuary. It grew from Robert Lee Forrest’s 1964 gift of a 365-acre dairy farm, expanded quickly through major grants and land purchases, and broadened into a multidisciplinary center for environmental studies. Its scientists investigate how coastal systems work and how people affect them, train students and interns, welcome more than 10,000 annual visitors, and contribute widely used research tools, databases, models, and technical expertise.