Map of Maryland State Forest with Amenities

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The Maryland Forest Service manages more than 214,000 acres of State Forest across western, central, southern, and eastern Maryland. A listing of individual State Forests is available in the navigation menu on the left side of this page.

State Forests are managed under a multiple-use philosophy that balances sustainable timber production, wildlife habitat, watershed protection, climate resilience, biodiversity, and outdoor recreation across the same landscape.

Maryland’s State Forests are working forests, not preserved wilderness areas or industrial timberlands. They are managed to provide long-term public and environmental benefits while ensuring these lands remain healthy, productive forests for future generations.

Most of Maryland’s State Forests are second-growth forests that regenerated following widespread industrial logging in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today, these forests provide clean drinking water, store carbon, support sensitive wildlife habitat, supply renewable wood products, and offer public access for hiking, hunting, camping, fishing, and other recreation opportunities.

Multiple-Use Forest Management

Multiple-use forestry recognizes that forests can serve many purposes at once. Maryland’s State Forests are managed to support:

• Forest health and long-term resilience
• Wildlife habitat and biodiversity
• ​Clean water and watershed protection
• Climate adaptation and carbon storage
• Public recreation and outdoor access
• Sustainable local wood products
• Protection from wildfire, invasive species, insects, and disease

Management plans are designed at the landscape scale so that no single objective dominates the entire forest. Some areas are managed to encourage young forest habitat and regeneration, while others are maintained as mature interior forest, sensitive habitat, riparian buffers, or recreation areas.

This approach reflects decades of forestry and ecological research showing that active management is often necessary to sustain healthy forests in landscapes shaped by historic logging, invasive species, fragmentation, fire suppression, and changing environmental conditions.

Additional information about Maryland forestry policy and statewide priorities is available in the Maryland Forest Action Plan.

Planning, Public Review, and Oversight

Forest management activities are guided by long-term forest management plans and annual work plans developed through interdisciplinary review by professionals in forestry, wildlife, fisheries, recreation, water resources, and natural heritage conservation.

Each annual work plan is developed well in advance of implementation and reviewed in the field before operations begin. Planned management activities are presented for public comment, and timber harvest contracts on State Forests require approval by the Maryland Board of Public Works.

Timber harvest operations are conducted by licensed Forest Product Operators​ and certified Master Loggers. Protective forest buffers are retained along streams and waterways, and all operations must comply with Maryland sediment and erosion control requirements and forestry best management practices.

Forest Certification and Sustainability

More than 200,000 acres of Maryland State Forest are independently certified under the Forest S​tewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative​.

These internationally recognized certification systems establish standards for sustainable forestry, biodiversity conservation, water quality protection, worker safety, and long-term stewardship. Independent audits include field inspections, stakeholder consultation, and detailed review of management activities and conservation practices.

Additional certification documents, audit reports, and pesticide use records are available on the Forest Certification page.

Supporting Local Communities and Public Lands

Revenue generated from timber sales supports the State Forest and Park Fund, helping maintain roads, trails, recreation facilities, boundary lines, and forest infrastructure across Maryland’s public lands.

By law, a portion of timber revenue is also returned directly to county governments where State Forests are located. Garrett and Allegany counties receive 25 percent of timber revenue generated within their borders, while all other counties receive 15 percent.