Bankhead National Forest contains a wide variety of habitats and birds, including open oak-pine woodlands maintained by prescribed fire, wildlife openings, young pine forest, riparian coves and creeks, lake shore, cove forest, switchcane thickets, mature hardwood forests, cedar woodlands, limestone outcrops, and the Wild and Scenic River corridor of the Sipsey Fork. Birds associated with these areas include Prairie Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Osprey, Belted Kingfisher, Scarlet Tanager, Kentucky Warbler, and Cerulean Warbler, for which the Sipsey Trail area is a stronghold within the state. Originally named Alabama National Forest, the area was set aside in 1914 to protect watersheds and streams, and in the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps replanted forests on abandoned farmland. Renamed for Congressman William B. Bankhead, the forest covers 180,000 acres in Lawrence, Winston, and Franklin counties, where the Forest Service manages it for native forests, wildlife habitat uncommon on private land, recreation, timber resources, and soil and watershed protection. Its habitats include biologically diverse canyons, corridors, and coves shaped by rock outcroppings, water, slope, and shady forest cover, as well as extensive mixed hardwood-pine stands dominated by oak, hickory, and pines with a midstory of native huckleberry and mountain laurel.