California’s demonstration state forests serve as a living laboratory for how to care for and manage California’s forest lands for multiple benefits—wood products and timber production, recreation, watershed protection, and habitat restoration—given a changing climate and increasingly severe and intense wildfire seasons. The forests provide unique research and demonstration opportunities where environmental scientists, foresters, and other researchers can study the effects of various forest management and restoration techniques that help inform management practices for government, nonprofit and private forestland owners. 

Common activities on state forests include experimental timber harvesting techniques that test the Forest Practice Rules, watershed restoration, mushroom collecting, hunting, firewood gathering, cone collecting for seed, a variety of university research projects, horseback riding, camping, mountain biking, and hiking.

Jackson is the largest of CAL FIRE’s ten demonstration state forests. The area has a long history of logging which began in under private ownership 1862 then evolved into sustainable harvesting after the State’s purchase of the property in 1947. Today, more forest growth occurs each year than is harvested. The most common tree on the forest is coast redwood, but visitors will also find Douglas-fir, grand fir, hemlock, bishop pine, tanoak, alder, madrone and bay myrtle.