Custer Gallatin National Forest

Spanning across southeastern Montana, the Custer National Forest is abundant with opportunity, known best as one of the most ecologically diverse forests in the Northern Region.  The Forest encompasses nearly 1.3 million acres.  Stretching from the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness outside of Red Lodge, MT, eastward across the Pryor Mountains and encompassing a varied topography including rolling grasslands, ponderosa pine and steep outcroppings surrounding Ashland, MT.   The landscape then stretches out through southeastern Montana and into South Dakota joining into mosiac islands of forest and prairie that continue to sweep out into the grasslands of central South Dakota. Within the forest are Native American burial grounds, pictographs and petroglyphs. For the plains Indians, the forest provided shelter and a stable food supply. Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition are generally considered to be the first white Americans to visit the region. The forest is comprised of three districts: The Beartooth Ranger District, with an office in Red Lodge, Montana, encompasses the Beartooth Mountains and the Pryor Mountains. The Sioux Ranger District encompasses eight land units in extreme south eastern Montana and north western South Dakota with an office located in Camp Crook, South Dakota. The Ashland Ranger District has the largest contiguous block of land in federal ownership in eastern Montana and is located in south-central Montana with an office in Ashland, Montana.