- Home
- Academics
- Arts & Sciences
- Elon Forest
Elon Forest
![Photo of trees in Elon University Forest.](https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/190/2017/06/10_04_10-elon-forest-039.jpg)
![Photo of oak leaves in Elon University Forest.](https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/190/2017/06/10_04_10-elon-forest-037.jpg)
![Photo of purple flowers in Elon University Forest.](https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/190/2017/06/10_04_10-elon-forest-033.jpg)
![Martin Fowler brings his Elon 101 students out to the Elon Forest to show them a different side of Elon's campus.](https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/190/2017/06/08_30_12-elon-forest-025-edit.jpg)
![Elon Academy students studying herpetology with Lacey Huffling look for specimens in the Elon Forest during class.](https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/190/2017/06/07_05_16-elon-academy-elon-forest-027.jpg)
![Elon Academy students studying herpetology with Lacey Huffling look for specimens in the Elon Forest during class.](https://eloncdn.blob.core.windows.net/eu3/sites/190/2017/06/07_05_16-elon-academy-elon-forest-003-edit.jpg)
The mission of the Elon University Forest is to provide a protected natural area to serve primarily as a teaching resource and research site.
“Elon” is Hebrew for “oak.” It is fitting, then, that the hardwood forests and other ecosystems of Elon University Forest represent the spirit, strength, and sustainability of Elon University. The Forest symbolizes a permanence that exists even while the University and the larger world change rapidly, as well as the notion that nature itself is a central part of higher education.