300px|thumb|right|Map of national forests in the United States, depicted in green
thumb|[[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada in the Sequoia National Forest, California]]
thumb|[[Rainforest in the El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico]]
thumb|upright=1.5|[[Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon]]
thumb|[[Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania]]
thumb|Fall colors in [[Ottawa National Forest, Michigan]]
In the United States, national forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands that are largely forest and woodland areas. They are owned collectively by the American people through the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Forest Service is also a forestry research organization that provides financial assistance to the state and local forestry industry. There are 154 national forests in the United States.
History
The Land Revision Act of 1891, enacted during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, allowed the president to set aside forest reserves on public lands. Harrison established 15 forest reserves containing more than 13 million acres of land. The bill was the result of concerted action by Los Angeles-area businessmen and property owners who were concerned by the harm being done to the watershed of the San Gabriel Mountains by ranchers and miners. Abbot Kinney and forester Theodore Lukens were key spokesmen for the effort.
Timeline of legislation
- 1897: The Organic Act was passed to protect watersheds and forests while still allowing the timber industry to continue.
- 1970: The National Environmental Policy Act was passed, which required the environmental impact statements to be made for federal actions that may impact the environment. This allowed a legal standing to challenge the logging industry. This would be facilitated through shrinking the rules and regulations required to get permits to conduct such business. In October 2020, the Trump administration proclaimed its goal of "strengthening markets for wood products and incentivizing innovative manufacturing techniques" and reported "The Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service sold 3.3 billion board feet of timber from national forests in fiscal year 2019 — the highest output since 1997". Furthermore, President Trump signed an executive order to "establish the United States One Trillion Trees Interagency Council" in order to further the Federal Government's participation in this effort and repeal the current $30 million annual funding cap for the Reforestation Trust Fund. There are 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands containing 193 million acres (297,000 mi<sup>2</sup>/769 000 km<sup>2</sup>) of land. These lands comprise 8.5 percent of the total land area of the United States, an area about the size of Texas. Unlike national parks and other federal lands managed by the National Park Service, extraction of natural resources from national forests is permitted, and in many cases encouraged.