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Creation of the Bridger-Teton National Forest
On March 30th, 1891, President Benjamin Harrison set aside the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve, located along the eastern and southern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. This presidential proclamation followed a decade of debate over the fate of America’s forested areas. Many scientists of the late 1800s saw the creation of this forested reserve as an important step in stemming the advancing tide of timber harvest, overgrazing, mining and watershed destruction. The creation of this land reserve marked the beginning of the conservation effort in America and exemplified the need for effective land management. Over the next fifteen years four presidents would place more than 94 million acres of federal lands in the American West into forest reserves.
The original Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve encompassed approximately 1,239,040 acres. Portions of the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve now lie within the boundaries of the Teton Wilderness on the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
On February 22, 1897, President Cleveland, by executive order, created the Teton Forest Reserve from 829,440 acres of public domain land. This area, which lies south of the original Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve, is now part of Grand Teton National Park and the Buffalo Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
The creation of additional Forest Reserves picked up pace after the turn of the century. In May of 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt added an additional 5 million acres to the Forest Reserve system in northwest Wyoming and southwest Montana. The newly created Yellowstone Forest Reserve was divided into four divisions; the Absaroka Division to the north of Yellowstone National Park, the Shoshone Division to the east of Yellowstone National Park, the Teton Division which extended south of Yellowstone almost to Kemmerer, and the Wind River Division which encompassed much of the Wind River Mountains.
In 1905 President Roosevelt transferred the Forest Reserve System from the General Land Office to the Department of Agriculture, and in 1907 the name Forest Reserve was changed to National Forest. In 1908 President Roosevelt abolished the Yellowstone National Forest with its separate divisions and created the Teton, Wyoming (now Bridger), Absaroka and Beartooth (now Custer), Shoshone, Bonneville (now Caribou), and Targhee National Forests. The Wyoming National Forest was renamed the Bridger National Forest in 1941. In 1973 the Bridger and Teton National Forests were combined to form a single forest. Today the Bridger-Teton National Forest consists of 3,439,809 acres of public land in northwest Wyoming.