Kootenai National Forest

Parks Directory of the United States / National Forests

Address:506 Hwy 2 W
Libby, MT 59923
Phone:406-293-6211
Fax:406-283-7709
Web: www.fs.fed.us/r1/kootenai
Size: 2,200,000 acres.
Location:Northwestern Montana. Accessible by US 2 and 93; MT 37, 56, 200, and 508. Nearby cities/towns include Eureka and Libby.
Facilities:6 rental cabins and lookout towers, 39 developed campgrounds, picnic sites, trails (1,343 miles), scenic drives.
Activities:Camping, hunting, fishing, boating, swimming, water skiing, hiking, horseback riding, cross-country and downhill skiing, snowmobiling, rock climbing, bicycling, gold panning.
Special Features:Portions of five mountain ranges: Whitefish Range, Purcell Mountains, Bitterroot Range, Salish Mountains, Cabinet Mountains; Kootenai and Clark Fork rivers; Lake Koocanusa, Cabinet Gorge, and Noxon reservoirs; 100 lakes ranging from small alpine lakes to 1,240-acre McGregor Lake.

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References in periodicals archive

This project will plant disease-resistant whitebark pine in deforested areas of Kootenai National forest, restoring this key tree species that supports many species of wildlife, including grizzly bears, and stabilizes The watersheds of much of the American West, it will also enhance the local forest ecosystem for The enjoyment of hikers and other visitors.

Global ReLeaf projects 2011

Former Supervisor of the Kootenai National Forest (1983-1990)

Forest Mismanagement. (Letters to the Editor)

In the five northern counties of the Idaho Panhandle there are no designated wilderness areas, and the Kootenai National Forest in which Scotchman Peaks is located has the smallest percentage of wilderness (4 percent) of any national forest in Montana.

Browey Youth Awards: meet the 2012 winners!

Little and Big Therriault lake Campgrounds Ten Lakes Scenic Area, Kootenai National Forest It's not off the map (it's just this side of the Canadian border, west of Glacier National Park) but does come close--at least character The quiet 6,541-acre Ten Lakes Scenic Area has been set aside for backcountry use for more than 30 years.

Meet your perfect campground: we play matchmaker, pairing your camping personality with places you're sure to love

I live in the most highly forested county in Montana, where timber harvest in the Kootenai National Forest has declined to around 10 percent of what it was in the late '80s due to litigation by extreme environmentalists whose goal is to stop all logging in national forests.

Yes & no on cutting

* Kootenai National Forest, Montana: Ron Hvizdak, fire-management officer on the Rexford Ranger District, reports, "We're burning maybe 15,000 to 20,000 acres a year, but this forest burned 50,000 acres naturally before fire suppression." He also reports good chemistry between his fire folks and the community on prescribed burns: help from local volunteer firefighters, field trips by a high-school biology class, and locals who now understand why the process is desirable and accept it.

Fighting fire with fire

Emch began his career in 1978 on the Kootenai National Forest in Montana.

City/Region Digest

[solid index] Near the Canadian border on Montana's Kootenai National Forest, you'll come upon a special stand of old-growth western redcedars.

Forest camping's top 10

"My first stirrings came in 1978," he recalls, "when I was a forester-trainee on the Kootenai National Forest out of Troy, Montana.

A very hot potato