The Okanogan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in

Okanogan County Okanogan County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington along the Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 42,104. The county seat is Okanogan, while the largest city is Omak. Its area is the largest in ...

in north-central

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

North Cascades at Okanogan National Forest

The forest is bordered on the north by

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, on the east by

Colville National Forest The Colville National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in northeastern Washington state. It is bordered on the west by the Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest and the Kaniksu National Forest to the east. The forest also borders Little P ...

, on the south by the divide between the Methow and the Stehekin–

Lake Chelan Lake Chelan ( ) is a narrow, long lake in Chelan County, north-central Washington state, U.S. Before 1927, it was the largest natural lake in the state by any measure. Upon the completion of Lake Chelan Dam in 1927, the elevation of the lake was ...

valleys, and on the west by

North Cascades National Park North Cascades National Park is an American national park in the state of Washington. At more than , it is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Complex. North Cascades National Par ...

. The closest significant communities are

Omak Omak ( Merriam (1997), p. 869) is a city located in the foothills of the Okanogan Highlands in north-central Washington, United States. With an estimated 4,845 residents as of 2010, distributed over a land area of , Omak is the largest municipa ...

and Okanogan. Managed by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

together with

Wenatchee National Forest Wenatchee National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in Washington. With an area of 1,735,394 acres (2,711.55 sq mi, or 7,022.89 km²), it extends about 137 miles along the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range of Washington, USA from ...

, its headquarters are in

Wenatchee Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

. There are local

ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

district offices located in

Tonasket Tonasket is a city in Okanogan County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,032 at the 2010 census. History Tonasket was officially incorporated on December 16, 1927. It is named after Chief Tonasket of the Okanogan people, a local ...

and Winthrop. It is the second-largest national forest (after the

Nez Perce National Forest The Nez Perce National Forest is a United States National Forest located in west-central Idaho. The forest is bounded on the east by the state of Montana, on the north by the Clearwater National Forest, on the west by a portion of the Wallowa– ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

) that is contained entirely within one county and largest of which in Washington. Most of the

Pasayten Wilderness The Pasayten Wilderness is a protected area located within Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest and Mount Baker National Forest in Washington state, centered on the Three Forks () of the Pasayten River, a tributary of the Similkameen River. Al ...

(excluding its westernmost part, which lies in the

Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

), and the northeast portion (about 63%) of

Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness The Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness is a protected wilderness area located within the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests in Washington State. The wilderness borders Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and North Cascades National Park an ...

are part of the forest, with the balance lying in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The western part of the forest is wetter than the dry and less temperate east. The vegetation varies similarly, from the western

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...

, to the eastern high-elevation

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

. A 1993 Forest Service study estimated that the extent of old growth in the forest was , a majority of which was

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, ...

forests.

Wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

s are not uncommon in the Okanogan National Forest. Notable fires include the 2006 Tripod Complex, the 2014 Carlton Complex and the 2015 Okanogan Complex fires. The Okanogan National Forest was established on July 1, 1911, from a portion of the

Chelan National Forest Chelan National Forest was established in Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washingt ...

. On July 1, 1921, the entire forest was transferred back to the Chelan National Forest, but on March 23, 1955, the transfer was reverted.

Administration

The Okanogan National Forest was administratively combined with the

in 2000, although the boundaries for each forest remained unchanged, and in 2007, it administratively became known as the Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest. The headquarters are in

Wenatchee, Washington Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

. There are local ranger district offices located in Chelan, Cle Elum, Entiat, Leavenworth, and Naches.

History

The

Forest Reserve Act of 1891 The General Revision Act (sometimes Land Revision Act) of 1891, also known as the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, was a federal law signed in 1891 by President Benjamin Harrison. The Act reversed previous policy initiatives, such as the Timber Culture ...

gave the President the authority to establish forest reserves for the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

. After passage of the

Transfer Act of 1905 The Transfer Act of 1905 (33 Stat. 628) transferred the forest reserves of the United States from the Department of the Interior, General Land Office to the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Forestry. General information On February 1st 190 ...

, forest reserves became part of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

in the newly created United States Forest Service. The Chelan National Forest was established by the Forest Service on July 1, 1908, from from a portion of the

Washington National Forest Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, and was named after the city of Chelan, where its headquarters were. The forest's initial area of extended from the northern

Okanogan River The Okanogan River (known as the Okanagan River in Canada) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 115 mi (185 km) long, in southern British Columbia and north central Washington. It drains a scenic plateau region called th ...

near the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

to divide the

and Entiat watersheds to the southern Cascade Crest. On July 1, 1911, the forest partly transformed into Okanogan National Forest. However, Chelan National Forest was still existent, then only occupying the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of Lake Chelan and Entiat. The Conconully, Loomis, Squaw Creek, Sweat Creek, Twisp and Winthrop ranger districts were formed between 1911 and 1915. On July 1, 1921, the entire forest reunited back into the Chelan National Forest, and the term ''Okanogan'' was discontinued. Subsequently, another ranger district was established, the Chelan Ranger District. Portions of the Loomis Ranger District, along with the Sweat Creek Ranger District, absorbed to become the Loomis State Forest, later abandoned. The forest's ranger area underwent a number of smaller changes until the mid-1940s. The Squaw Creek Ranger District was absorbed by the Twisp Ranger District in the early 1930s, while the Forest Service Monument 83 lookout was constructed in neighboring

as an accident. The Pasayten Ranger District was later created from a portion of the Winthrop Ranger District, and the Conconully Ranger District became the Okanogan Ranger District. The western part of the

transferred into the Chelan National Forest in 1943. On March 23, 1955, Chelan National Forest again became the Okanogan National Forest, then headquartered in the city of Okanogan. As per the change, the rename of the Conconully Ranger District was reverted. In 1968, the

was established, introducing over to the forest. The

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

designated almost 65 percent of the forest's area as the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness under the

National Wilderness Preservation System The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) of the United States protects federally managed wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally designated wilderness areas is coordinated by the Na ...

around 1984, upon land formerly occupied by the former Chelan Division of the Washington Forest Reserve. The first forest supervisor of Wenatchee National Forest was Albert H. Sylvester, who named over a thousand natural features in the region.

References

External links

Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest National Forests of Washington (state) North Cascades of Washington (state) Protected areas of Okanogan County, Washington Protected areas established in 1911 Protected areas established in 1955 1911 establishments in Washington (state) 1955 establishments in Washington (state)

Administration

History

See also

References

External links