History of the ANF

The original old-growth longleaf pine/bunchgrass ecosystem in the southern United States was cut between 1880 and the early 1900s (Frost 2006).  Many of the remaining longleaf pines were tapped for gum, which was distilled for turpentine and rosin.  In the 1930s, the USDA bought large areas of these damaged cutover lands.  The mission of the Forest Service was to regrow the cutover forest and to assure that its products would be used to serve the public.  The Apalachicola National Forest (ANF) was designated as a National Forest by Presidential Proclamation on May 13, 1936, under the authority granted to the Executive Branch by Congress through the Weeks Act of 1911. It is the largest and youngest of the three national forests in Florida and one of 154 national forests and grasslands in the United States administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.