Sawtooth National Forest is a federally
protected area that covers 2,110,408 acres (854,052 ha) in the
U.S. states of
Idaho (~96 percent) and
Utah (~4 percent). Managed by the
U.S. Forest Service in the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, it was originally named the Sawtooth
Forest Reserve in a proclamation issued by
President Theodore Roosevelt on May 29, 1905. On August 22, 1972 a portion of the forest was designated as the
Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA), which includes the
Sawtooth,
White Clouds, and
Hemingway–Boulders wilderness areas. The forest is managed as four units: the SNRA and the
Fairfield,
Ketchum, and Minidoka Ranger Districts.