Coronado National Forest spans separate mountain ranges across southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, covering about 1.78 million acres in a distinctive “sky island” landscape where cool highlands rise from desert basins. Built from earlier reserves and forests, land now within it entered the Santa Rita Forest Reserve in 1902, passed to the U.S. Forest Service in 1905, and was organized as Coronado National Forest in 1908, with other forests later absorbed. Its five noncontiguous ranger districts include prominent peaks, canyons, and wilderness areas used for recreation and protected from motorized use. The forest has also seen recent fire and border barrier controversies.