Pinchot State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in several separate tracts across the northeastern part of the state, including land in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, and Wayne counties. It reflects Pennsylvania’s response to the devastation of old-growth forests that had been clear-cut and then damaged further by fires that hindered regrowth. Reformers such as Dr. Joseph Rothrock pushed the state to buy cutover land, a policy advanced in 1895 and strengthened in 1897. The forest began in 1902 with a land purchase in Thornhurst Township, was long known as Lackawanna State Forest, expanded greatly after 2005, and was renamed in 2015 for Gifford Pinchot.