Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
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| Date opened | 1974 |
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| Location | Front Royal, Virginia, United States |
| Coordinates | 38°53′15.6″N 78°9′54.6″W / 38.887667°N 78.165167°WCoordinates: 38°53′15.6″N 78°9′54.6″W / 38.887667°N 78.165167°W |
| Land area | 3,200 acres (13 km2) |
| Website | http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/default.cfm |
The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution located on a 3,200-acre (13 km2) campus located just outside the town of Front Royal, Virginia. An extension of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the SCBI has played a leading role in the fields of veterinary medicine, reproductive physiology and conservation biology since its founding in 1974.
Previously named the Conservation and Research Center, the CRC became known as the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2010 as a symbol of its growing independence from the captive animals associated with the traditional images of zoos.
The land on which the SCBI lies has a history dating back to 1909, when the United States Army leased some 42 area farms. In the years predating World War I, the land served as a series of U.S. Army Remount Service depots, supplying horses and mules to the military. The federal government ultimately purchased the land in 1911 and began construction on the Ayleshire Quartermaster Remount Depot. Completed in 1916, the Depot consisted of eleven barn and stable facilities, hundreds of miles of split-rail fencing, many miles of access roads, and a rail yard facility for the import and export of animals. The Ayleshire Quartermaster Remount Depot remained in operation throughout both world wars, and was eventually expanded to include a canine training facility and detention barracks for 600 German and Italian prisoners of war.
In 1948 Congress passed legislation transferring ownership of the land to the Department of Agriculture, which redeveloped the property into a beef cattle research station. In conjunction with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), the USDA experimented with various environmental and husbandry conditions, designed to quantitatively and qualitatively improve the meat production of various cattle breeds. The Department of State leased part of the compound from USDA for use as an emergency relocation and communications site, with support infrastructure for the Secretary of State and 700 other departmental employees. The USDA closed the station in 1973, leaving the site temporarily vacant.
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