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!
Fire Restrictions lifted across Kootenai National Forest & NW Montana
Effective Wednesday, August 25th at 12:01 a.m., all fire restrictions will be lifted from Kootenai National Forest lands in Flathead, Lincoln, and Sanders Counties and KNF lands in Bonner and Boundary Counties in Idaho. Recent rain and cooler temperatures have brought needed moisture to forest vegetation and lowered the fire danger across northwest Montana. Please keep wildfire prevention in mind when visiting your public lands, be prepared and have the proper tools to extinguish a campfire before you light it. You're cooperation is greatly appreciated!
Please view the following for more information, with the press release including more information on other jurisdictions rescinding fire restrictions.
Fire Related Closure Orders
View all Forest closure orders (including non-fire) and order terminations on the Alerts & Notices webpage (scroll down to the Alerts section).
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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