The Winema National Forest is a United States National Forest

United States National Forest

National Forest is a classification of federal lands in the United States.National Forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Land management of these areas...

 in Klamath County

Klamath County, Oregon

-National protected areas:* Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge* Crater Lake National Park * Deschutes National Forest * Fremont National Forest * Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge* Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge...

 on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range

Cascade Range

The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...

 in south-central Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, and covers 1045548 acres (4,231 km²). The forest borders Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park is a United States National Park located in southern Oregon. Established in 1902, Crater Lake National Park is the sixth oldest national park in the United States and the only one in the state of Oregon...

 near the crest of the Cascades and stretches eastward into the Klamath Basin

Klamath Basin

The Klamath Basin is the region in the U.S. states of Oregon and California drained by the Klamath River. It contains most of Klamath County and parts of Lake and Jackson counties in Oregon, and parts of Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties in California. The drainage basin...

. Near the floor of the Basin the forest gives way to vast marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es and meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

s associated with Upper Klamath Lake

Upper Klamath Lake

Upper Klamath Lake is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south central Oregon in the United States. The largest freshwater body in Oregon, it is approximately 20 mi long and 8 mi wide and extends northwest from the city of Klamath Falls...

 and the Williamson River

Williamson River (Oregon)

The Williamson River of south-central Oregon in the United States is about long. It drains about east of the Cascade Range. Together with its principal tributary, the Sprague River, it provides over half the inflow to Upper Klamath Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Oregon...

 drainage. To the north and east extensive stands of ponderosa

Ponderosa Pine

Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the Ponderosa Pine, Bull Pine, Blackjack Pine, or Western Yellow Pine, is a widespread and variable pine native to western North America. It was first described by David Douglas in 1826, from eastern Washington near present-day Spokane...

 and lodgepole pine

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta, also known as Shore Pine, is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.-Subspecies:...

 grow on deep pumice

Pumice

Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. It can be formed when lava and water are mixed. This unusual formation is due to the simultaneous actions of rapid...

 and ash that blanketed the area during the eruption of Mount Mazama

Mount Mazama

Mount Mazama is a destroyed stratovolcano in the Oregon part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range. The volcano's collapsed caldera holds Crater Lake, and the entire mountain is located within Crater Lake National Park....

 nearly 7,000 years ago. A 1993 Forest Service study estimated that the extent of old growth in the Forest was 711674 acres (288,004.5 ha).

There are local ranger district offices located in Chemult

Chemult, Oregon

Chemult is an unincorporated community in Klamath County, Oregon, United States, on U.S. Route 97. Chemult has a population of about 300 people. Chemult's elevation is ....

, Chiloquin

Chiloquin, Oregon

Chiloquin is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name Chaloquin, which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time of the treaty of 1864...

, and Klamath Falls

Klamath Falls, Oregon

Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...

.

History

The forest is named after Toby Riddle

Toby Riddle

Toby "Winema" Riddle was a Modoc woman who served as an interpreter in negotiations between the Native American Modoc tribe and the United States Army during the Modoc War . She warned the peace commission of a possible Modoc attack, and she saved the life of the chairman Alfred B...

, a Modoc woman also known as "Winema".

Founded in 1961, the Winema National Forest was initially protected as the Cascade Range Forest
Reserve from 1893 to 1907, when it became the Cascade (South) National Forest. In 1908, it changed to the Mazama National Forest and then Crater Lake National Forest until 1932. The land was part of the Rogue River National Forest from 1932 to 1961, when it was designated the Winema National Forest. In 2002, it was administratively combined with the Fremont National Forest

Fremont National Forest

The Fremont National Forest is a United States National Forest named after John C. Frémont, who explored the area for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1843. It is located in western Lake and eastern Klamath counties in Oregon, and has a land area of . There are local ranger district...

 to become the Fremont–Winema National Forests. The Winema National Forest separately is the third-largest National Forest (after the (Nez Perce National Forest

Nez Perce National Forest

The Nez Perce National Forest is located in Idaho County in central western Idaho in the northwestern United States. The forest is bounded on the east by the state of Montana, on the north by the Palouse region, and on the south and west by the Clearwater National Forest. It has a total area of...

 and the Okanogan National Forest

Okanogan National Forest

The Okanogan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in northern and western Okanogan County in north-central Washington State, United States...

) that is contained entirely within one county.

Klamath Reservation

More than 50 percent of the forest is former Klamath Indian Reservation land. Two purchases by the United States government - the first in 1963 of about 500000 acres (2,023 km²) and the second in 1973 of about 135000 acres (546 km²) - were combined with portions of three other national forests to form the Winema National Forest.

Members of the Klamath tribe reserve specific rights of hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering of forest materials on former reservation land within the Winema National Forest.

External links

• Fremont–Winema National Forests (official website)