Pisgah National Forest is a national forest in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. It is administered by the United States Forest Service, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture. The Pisgah National Forest is located entirely within the state of North Carolina. The forest is managed along with the other three North Carolina National Forests ( Croatan, Nantahala, and Uwharrie ) from a shared headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina. Local offices in the Ranger District are located at Pisgah Forest, Mars Hill and Heaven.
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| Pisgah National Forest |
History
Linville Gorge Wilderness in Pisgah National Forest.
The Pisgah National Forest was founded in 1916, one of the first national forests in the eastern United States. The new reserve included about 86,700 acres that were part of the Biltmore Estate, but were sold to the federal government in 1914 by Edith Vanderbilt. Some of the woodland was among the first acquired by the Forest Service under the Weeks Act.1911. Although national forests had already been established in the western United States, the Weeks Act provided the authority needed to create national forests. forests in the east too.
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| Pisgah National Forest |
Although sites in the future Pisgah National Forest were among the first purchased under the Weeks Act, the very first to receive official approval was Gennett's 31,000-acre (130 km) purchase in northern Georgia. On March 25, 1921, the Boone National Forest was added to Pisgah, and on July 10, 1936, most of the Unaka National Forest. In 1954, the Pisgah National Forest was administratively merged into the Croatan and Nantahala National Forests, collectively known as the North Carolina National Forests.
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| Pisgah National Forest |
American forestry has its roots in what is now the Pisgah National Forest. The Cradle of Forestry ( Biltmore Forest School ), located in the southern part of the forest, was the site of the first school of forestry in the United States. It was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The school was opened and operated at the behest of George Washington Vanderbilt II, the builder of the Biltmore estatein Asheville. The forestry training offered at the Biltmore was provided by Karl Schenk. A native of Germany, Schenk was assigned to Vanderbilt when Gifford Pinchot stepped down to head the newly formed Forestry Division. The birthplace of forestry and the Biltmore Estate were instrumental in the birth of the US Forest Service. Today, these lands are part of an educational and recreational area within the Pisgah National Forest.
The forest property contains the Bent Creek Campus of the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.