Overview
The forest was established by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 13, 1908 and is named after the Malheur River, from the French, meaning literally "misfortune". It is managed for timber extraction, cattle grazing, gold mining and wilderness use by the Forest Service, a division of the US Department of Agriculture. A 1993 Forest Service study estimated that the extent of old growth in the forest was 312,000 acres (1,260 km2).
In descending order of land area the forest is located in parts of Grant, Harney, Baker, and Malheur counties. There are three ranger districts in the forest, with offices in John Day, Prairie City, and Hines, Oregon.
The Malheur National Forest contains the largest known organism (by area) in the world: an Armillaria solidipes that spans 2200 acres (8.9 km²).
Read more about this topic: Malheur National Forest