Forbes State Forest in southwestern Pennsylvania stretches across separate tracts along Laurel Ridge and includes Mount Davis, the state’s highest point. Created through Pennsylvania’s late nineteenth-century conservation movement, it grew from land badly damaged by logging and repeated wildfires. After reformers such as Dr. Joseph Rothrock helped establish state forest policy, the first tract was purchased in 1909, and later acquisitions expanded the forest over many decades. Civilian Conservation Corps camps aided its development in 1933. Much of the forest remains undeveloped for hiking, skiing, hunting, and fishing, while areas such as Roaring Run, Quebec Run, Spruce Flats Bog, and Mount Davis reflect long-term reforestation, ecological recovery, and public stewardship.

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Laurel Mountain, Pennsylvania · USA