Delaware State Forest is an 85,114-acre Pennsylvania state forest in the Pocono region, spread across Monroe and Pike counties and managed from Swiftwater as part of Bureau of Forestry District #19. It emerged from the broader recovery of lands badly damaged by 19th-century logging, iron production, and repeated wildfires that prevented regrowth. After conservationists such as Dr. Joseph Rothrock pressed for state action, Pennsylvania authorized the purchase of unseated lands for forest reservations in 1897, helping create forests like this one. Today it includes natural and wild areas, wetlands, lakes, upland woods, and associated state parks, reflecting that long conservation effort.