Modoc National Forest is a

U.S. national forest In the United States, national forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands. National forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned collectively by the American people through the federal government, and managed by t ...

in Northeastern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Geography

The Modoc National Forest protects parts of Modoc (82.9% of acreage),

Lassen Lassen is a Danish and Norwegian patronymic surname meaning "son of Lars" (equivalent of Laurentius), and thus a parallel form of the more common surname Larsen. Notable people with the surname include: * Anders Lassen (1920–1945), a Danish reci ...

(9.4%), and Siskiyou (7.7%) counties. Most of the forest was covered by immense lava flows occurring over the last 500,000 years. The eastern part of the forest east of Alturas contains the Warner Mountains. The Warner Mountains drop steeply on the eastern slopes, whereas the western flank has a more gentle topography.

Ecology

Due to the elevation and precipitation differences, the forests hosts a large number of plant species. The western side of the brushy foothills consist mostly of bitterbrush and curl-leaf mahogany. As elevation increases, forests of

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

white White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

and red firs,

incense cedar ''Calocedrus'', the incense cedar (alternatively spelled incense-cedar), is a genus of coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae first described as a genus in 1873. It is native to eastern Asia and western North America. The generi ...

, and

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

give way to lodgepole and

western white pine Western white pine (''Pinus monticola''), also called silver pine and California mountain pine, is a species of pine in the family Pinaceae. It occurs in mountain ranges of northwestern North America. It is the state tree of Idaho. Descriptio ...

s sprinkle towards the summit. Some of the forest have been identified as

old growth An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

, with lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, white fir, incense cedar, and red fir being common constituents.

History

Modoc National Forest was established as the Modoc Forest Reserve on November 29, 1904, by the

General Land Office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department ...

. It was named for the Modoc people who traditionally had their territory in this area. In 1905 federal forests were transferred to the U.S. Forest Service, and on March 4, 1907, they became National Forests. On July 1, 1908 Warner Mountains National Forest was added to Modoc. The

South Warner Wilderness The South Warner Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area east of Alturas, California, United States. It encompasses more than of the Warner Mountains. It is within the Modoc National Forest and managed by the US Forest Service. E ...

lies within the forest.

Management

Forest headquarters are located in

Alturas, California Alturas ( Spanish for "Heights"; Achumawi: ''Kasalektawi'') is a city and the county seat of Modoc County, California. Located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, the city had a population of 2,715 at the 2020 census. Alturas ...

. There are local ranger district offices located in

Adin Adin is an uncommon family name found today in the United States (particularly New York City), England, Israel, New Zealand, Spain (particularly the Basque country), Sweden and Turkey. Origin Biblical references Since the name occurs in the ...

, Alturas, Cedarville, and Tulelake.

References

External links