Homochitto National Forest spans 191,839 acres across seven counties in southwestern Mississippi and is administered from Jackson, with ranger district offices in Meadville. The forest emerged in the mid-1930s through Civilian Conservation Corps reforestation and construction of roads and recreational sites, making New Deal conservation central to its history. Today it is one of Mississippi’s six national forests, serving as both a managed working landscape and a recreation area. It is also biologically significant, with about 850 species of vascular plants, at least eight freshwater mussel species, and notable insect records including the winter stonefly Allocapnia starki, first identified from specimens collected there.