Conservation Program

The 1.3 million acre Gifford Pinchot National Forest (GPNF), established in 1908 by Theodore Roosevelt, is one of the oldest national forests in the country. The GPNF is home to a wide array of natural beauty, with pockets of ancient forest, vast roadless areas and pristine creeks tumbling from craggy peaks. 

Many people enjoy the recreational opportunities our forests provide.

Amongst that beauty lays an immense range of uses including birding, logging , mushroom picking, bough harvest, and abundant recreational opportunities like hunting, fishing, and hiking. The GPNF provides people with the chance to be connected to our land.   

While the GPNF still harbors a great richness of biodiversity, it was a workhorse during the heyday of logging in the 1980’s. Logging over 600 million board feet in a single year during its peak and the construction of more than 4,000 miles of roads severely fragmented and degraded the forests, creeks and rivers. While a great need for restoration work exists on the GPNF, a network of healthy and productive areas on the GPNF remains. Protecting important biological refuges by ensuring that environmental standards are met or exceeded and new legislation are sound is always the first step in restoring ecosystems, habitats, and species. Forestlands adjacent to the GPNF also provide excellent habitat that needs to be conserved.

Grazing can have a dramatic affect on rare native plants, such as the pale blue-eyed grass shown here. Photo by Bob Hansen.

To recover thriving fish and wildlife populations and to protect community water sources, the Task Force continues to work to protect our public lands from destructive mining, grazing, timber practices, and more. When we act to finally protect remaining mature and ancient forests and roadless areas, we will be able to look to the future with more confidence that we can successfully restore the biodiversity and resilience of our forest and watersheds.