Kootenai National Forest spans about 2.2 million acres along the Canada-United States border in northwestern Montana, with a small extension into Idaho. Centered on rugged mountain ranges, major rivers, and more than 100 lakes, it includes much of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and reaches from Montana’s lowest elevation on the Kootenai River to Snowshoe Peak, the forest’s highest point. Its unusually wet, Pacific-influenced climate helps shape a landscape of abundant water and heavy mountain snowfall. With headquarters in Libby, the forest remains both a protected public landscape and a working forest, where recreation, conservation, timber activity, and wildfire risk are continually balanced.