The Mendocino National Forest is located in the Coastal Mountain Range in northwestern California and comprises 913,306 acres (3,696.02 km2).

There are a variety of recreational opportunities — camping, hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, backpacking, boating, fishing, hunting, nature study, photography, and off-highway vehicle travel.

Today there are three ranger districts, with some of the former guard stations now being utilized as "work centers" that are primarily staffed by fire crews.

The center's research gradually changed to developing and producing genetically improved plant material for the reforestation program of the Pacific Southwest Region.

Major work is done in the areas of biological, chemical, and clinical research on anti-cancer drugs derived The infamous Rattlesnake Fire occurred here in 1953.

The Trough Fire burned almost 25,000 acres (100 km2) of the Mendocino National Forest in 2001 including land in the Snow Mountain Wilderness.

Hunted to near extinction during the state's gold rush era, the animals were reintroduced to the Lake Pillsbury Basin in the late 1970s by the California Department of Fish and Game, and the herd has steadily grown, numbering around 80 in 2007.

An estimated 60,000 acres (240 km2) of old growth occur here, including forests of Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var.