The Pinchot State Forest is named in recognition of Gifford Pinchot's monumental contributions to forestry and his legacy of forest land conservation. Gifford Pinchot turned a childhood interest in nature into a distinguished career protecting forests and a founding role in America’s emerging conservation movement. President Theodore Roosevelt chose Pinchot as the first chief of the then-U. S. Division of Forestry, a role in which he served from 1898 to 1910. With the guidance of Roosevelt and Pinchot, over 200 million acres of national forest came under scientific land management. Policies developed by Pinchot still help guide most national and state forests. Pinchot served as commissioner of the original Pennsylvania Department of Forestry and later, 1920-1922, as secretary of the former Department of Forest and Waters. He also served two terms as Pennsylvania governor, 1923-27 and 1931-35. While serving as governor, Pinchot set up work camps throughout the state that became the models for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
The district's 48,000 acres of state forest lands blanket more than a few of the mountains near the confluence of the Susquehanna and Lackawanna rivers. Pinchot State Forest District includes Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna and Wayne counties.
