Choctawhatchee National Forest - NARA - 131043648

Choctawhatchee National Forest is a United States National Forest established by President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

on November 27, 1908. The supervisory headquarters was established at DeFuniak Springs and moved to Pensacola in September 1910. It remained there until 1936 when it was relocated to Tallahassee. The Choctawhatchee's two districts (Easy Bay- Camp Pinchot and Niceville) were separated by what is now State Road 85. National defense needs prompted

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

to transfer the national forest to the War Department just prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. On June 27, 1940, Congress transferred the 340,890 acres (1380 km²) of the Choctawhatchee from the Forest Service to the War Department (and subsequently to its successor's constituent

United States Department of the Air Force The United States Department of the Air Force (DAF) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Air Force was formed on September 18, 1947, per the National S ...

) for military purposes. The law provided that the land might be restored to national forest status by proclamation or order of the President when it was no longer needed for military purposes. It has been home to

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso, Florida, Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Florida, Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test ...

since. In descending order of amount of land area the forest is located in parts of southern Okaloosa, Walton, and Santa Rosa counties. During the early years, Camp Pinchot was the Forest Supervisor's summer headquarters. At that time, the only mode of transportation from Pensacola (site of the main supervisory headquarters) was by boat. In 2000, Camp Pinchot celebrated its 50th anniversary as the residence for the Eglin Air Force Base Commander. The current portion of the Choctawhatchee, that is still managed by the Forest Service, consists of several dispersed parcels that total only 1,110 acres (1.73 sq mi, or 4.492 km²) Table 6 - NFS Acreage by State, Congressional District and County
-

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

- September 30, 2007 and are managed by the Apalachicola National Forest. Some parcels lost many of their national forest characteristics by changing land-use over the years and others are difficult to manage because they are not contiguous. They may therefore be traded or sold to allow the Forest Service to acquire privately held land within the boundaries of other national forests in the state.

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National Forest service page
{{National Forests of the United States National forests of Florida Protected areas of Okaloosa County, Florida Protected areas of Santa Rosa County, Florida Protected areas of Walton County, Florida Protected areas established in 1908 1908 establishments in Florida

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