A Government Forest - Find One Near You
The federal government owns over 217 million acres of trees. This is a significant portion of the 747 million total acres of forest land existing in the United States. The numbers show that 37% of all forests are owned by tax-paying American citizens. The exciting thing is, most Americans can drive less than an hour and visit a state or federal forest or park, quite often for free.
Here is a brief description of these massive forests with links to the managing forest agency:
The National Forest System
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Congress established the Forest Service in 1905 to provide quality
water and timber for the Nation’s benefit. Congress responded by directing the Forest
Service to manage national forests for multiple uses to include a sustained yield of
renewable resources such as water, forage, wildlife, wood, and recreation. Multiple use
means managing resources under the best combination of uses to benefit the American people
while ensuring the productivity of the land and protecting the quality of the environment.
The National Forest System, part of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, covers 191 million acres (77.3 million hectares) of land, which is an
area equivalent to the size of Texas. The job of Forest Service managers is to help people
share and enjoy the forest, while conserving the environment for future generations. You
are a welcomed guest and should consider yourself part owner.
There are 155 national forests. Each forest is composed of several ranger districts in
9 regions. The district ranger and his or her staff may be your first point of
contact with the Forest Service. There are more than 600 ranger districts. Each district
has a staff of 10 to 100 people.
This National Forest System is located in 44 States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
The lands comprise 8.5 percent of the total land area in the United States. The natural
resources on these lands are some of the Nation’s greatest assets and have major
economic, environmental, and social significance for all Americans.
The Bureau of Land Management
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The Bureau of Land Management had no unified legislative mandate until Congress enacted the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). The BLM now administers public lands within a framework of numerous laws and is responsible for managing many land conditions, most of which are located in 12 western States.
The BLM wears many hats and manages a wide variety of resources including energy and minerals; timber; forage; wild horse and burro populations; fish and wildlife habitat; wilderness areas; archaeological, paleontological, and historical sites; and other natural heritage values.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing 264 million acres of land or about one-eighth of the land in the United States. Out of all this wildland, only 93 million acres are considered to be forested.
The National Park System
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Although Congress set aside Yellowstone National Park in 1872, there was no real system of national parks until a federal bureau, the National Park Service, was created on August 25, 1916 to manage those areas then assigned to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The National Park System encompasses approximately 80.7 million acres, of which more than 2.8 million acres remain in private ownership. The largest area is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres it is 16.3 percent of the entire system. The smallest unit in the system is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania, at 0.02 of an acre.
The National Park System of the United States comprises 378 areas in 49 States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands. These areas are of such national significance as to justify special recognition and protection in accordance with various acts of Congress.
The State Forest Systems
Many American states have public forests and parks. They are all
unique in organization and may be managed by either the state forester, the state
conservation department, or the state's parks department. I have tied these state
organizations together as well as the federal agencies managing forestland to give you a
better understanding of your local forests.
Also:
Federal and State Forests of the
United States
Federal and state forest listing from your Forestry About.com Guide.
The Unites States National Forest
System
Forests managed by the National Forest System.
The United States National Park System
Forests managed by the National Park System.
