Gifford Pinchot National Forest is a major protected landscape in southern Washington, extending along the west side of the Cascades from Mount Rainier National Park to the Columbia River. Its old-growth forests, meadows, glaciers, volcanic terrain, and Mount Adams make it ecologically and geologically significant. The land has been shaped by Native peoples for more than 6,000 years, especially the Yakama, whose treaty rights and huckleberry gathering remained central despite later restrictions. Established through federal forest reserves and renamed in 1949 for conservation leader Gifford Pinchot, it also includes Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, multiple wilderness areas, important wildlife habitat, and culturally significant berry fields.