White Mountain National Forest
The White Mountain National Forest ( WMNF ) is a forest in the White Mountains in the northeastern United States. It was founded in early 1918 and has a total area of 3175 km ². The largest part is located in New Hampshire; a small part ( about 5.65 percent of the forest ) is in the neighboring state of Maine. Although he is often regarded as a park, he is a National Forest, which is used not only by hikers, campers and skiers, but also to stay and for limited commercial interests. The WMNF is the only National Forest located in both New Hampshire and Maine. Most of the Four -thousand footers for peak -bagging in New Hampshire are located in the National Forest. Over 160 km of the Appalachian Trail pass through the White Mountain National Forest. In descending order of the forest lies in parts of Grafton County, Coos County, Carroll County and Oxford County (Maine).
The forest ranger office is currently in Laconia and there are three ranger districts: the Pemigewasset District (offices in Bethlehem and Plymouth), the Androscoggin District (office in Gorham ) and the Saco District (office in Conway ). There are plans to the overseers office in the area around Plymouth embarrassed. In addition, there are several visitor centers, including those in Lincoln, Campton ( off Interstate 93), and Lincoln Woods (on the Kancamagus Highway), and the Evans Notch Information Center in Bethel.
The National Forest comprises three non- contiguous areas. The area west of Franconia Pass includes the the Cannon Mountain and Mount Kinsman region as well as the Mount Moosilauke surrounds (although, most of the Mount Moosilaukes is privately owned ). The main part of the National Forests includes the Presidential Range and many other mountain ranges - the most important are: the Franconia Range, the Twin Mountains, the Bond Range, Sandwich Range, the Willey Range, and the Carter - Moriah Range. An exclave of the Forest lies north of the Presidential Range in Stark and Randolph.
Five designated Federal Wilderness Areas exist in the forest: the Presidential Range / Dry River Wilderness (110 km ²), the Great Gulf Wilderness ( 22.5 km ²), the Sandwich Range Wilderness (100 km ²), the Caribou / Speckled Mountain Wilderness (49 km ² ) and the Pemigewasset Wilderness (180 km ²). These areas are protected from overnight stays and the commercial industry and are used solely for recreational and scientific purposes. They were established by the Federal Wilderness Protection Act and its additional articles 1984. In New England Wilderness Protection Act of 1 December 2006, an additional 44 km ² large area for the Sandwich Range Wilderness and a new Wilderness was (96 km ²) in the area of the Wild Rivers set.
Because of its beauty, its proximity to the main Metrolregionen, 1,900 km of hiking trails and 23 campgrounds, as well as the presence of a large number of ski areas within or near its boundaries, the WMNF is one of the most visited national sites. With over six million visitors per year, the WMNF has more visitors than any other U.S. national park (exception: Great Smoky Mountains National Park ). Comparable numbers visit other National Forests are not available.