Welcome to the
Kootenai National Forest
The Kootenai National Forest is located in the Northwest corner of Montana and the Northeast corner of Idaho on the Canadian border. Providing abundant recreation and a wealth of natural resources, the Kootenai is a perfect place to relax and enjoy your National Forests!
Continuing our Service to You During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Continuing our service to you during this time is very important. Please call the office number (to the left) for the district you want to contact so that we can answer your question or direct you to the information you need. Our office hours are M-F 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
2021 Spring Prescribed Burning
March 18, 2021 – The Kootenai National Forest is planning to conduct spring prescribed fire projects when weather, fuel conditions, and air quality become favorable. The prescribed fire projects are located and designed to be controlled to reduce the potential for adverse effects.
See the following news release and map for more info on projects by Ranger District:
Quick Links to Your Outdoor Adventures

The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) gave the USDA Forest Service new opportunities to deliver benefits to the American public through major investments in recreation infrastructure. GAOA establishes a new fund to address the deferred maintenance backlog for 5 federal agencies over the next 5 years.
Authorized deferred maintenance projects on the Kootenai National Forest are summarized here.
A complete list of the Northern Region’s 2021 authorized projects, and 2022 projects being reviewed for the President’s 2022 budget can be found at https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/r1/home/?cid=fseprd796790&width=full
Since 1983, the Kootenai NF archaeologists have researched early logging practices and relocated the sites where they occurred. Information was amassed from oral history interviews, record donations, local and regional museum collections, universities, and state archives so we could understand and chart the migration of Midwestern logging companies from Minnesota to Washington in the early twentieth century, and their influence on the methods used in Lincoln County. View our online Story Journal see the product of this effort.
View our History of Logging in Lincoln County, Montana Story Journal
NOTE: Scroll using your mouse or navigate the Story Journal using the narrow navigation menu on the left side of the screen while viewing the journal.
FSTopo is the Forest Service series of large scale topographic maps. FSTopo maps are 7.5 minute, 1:24,000-scale over the conterminous United States, and 15 minute X 20-22.5 minute, 1:63,360-scale over Alaska.
These maps are available in several formats including:
Fire plays a natural role in the Kootenai National Forest and NW Montana ecosystem. It promotes vegetative and wildlife diversity and eliminates heavy fuel accumulations that can lead to catastrophic wildfire if not removed. Natural fires occur about every 5-25 years and they tend to be low intensity, ground fires that remove woody shrubs. You can now use our interactive map viewer to explore the wildland fire history for the Northern Region of the Forest Service, including the Kootenai National Forest.
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