List of U.S. National Forests

List Of U.S. National Forests

The United States has 155 protected areas known as National Forests covering 188,293,938 acres (761,998.53 km2). The National Forests are managed by the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The first National Forest was established as the Yellowstone Park Timber and Land Reserve on March 30, 1891, then in the Department of the Interior. In 1897, the Organic Act provided purposes for which forest reserves could be established, including to protect the forest, secure water supplies, and supply timber. With the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, the President of the United States was given the power to set aside forest reserves in the public domain. With the Transfer Act of 1905, forest reserves became part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the newly created U.S. Forest Service.

By 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt more than doubled the forest reserve acreage, and Congress responded by limiting the President’s ability to proclaim new reserves. The National Forest System underwent a major reorganization in 1908, and in 1911 Congress authorized new additions to the system under the authority of the Weeks Act. The management goals provided by the Organic Act were expanded upon by the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 to include “outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, and wildlife and fish purposes” as well as for the establishment of wilderness areas.

As of September 30, 2012, the Forest Service manages a total 192,976,743 acres (780,949.17 km2), 188,293,938 acres (761,998.53 km2) of which are National Forests. The additional land areas include 20 National Grasslands, 59 purchase units, 19 research and experimental areas, five land utilization projects, 37 other areas, and one National Preserve, Valles Caldera. The National Forest System has an extensive and complicated history of reorganization, so while there are currently 155 named National Forests, many of these are managed together as either a single forest or separate forests.

There is at least one National Forest in all but ten states: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Dakota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. In addition, El Yunque National Forest is in Puerto Rico. If looking at national forests on a map, in general those west of the Great Plains show the true extent of their area, while those east of the Great Plains only show purchase districts, within which usually only a minority of the land is owned by the Forest Service.