Plumas National Forest, National forest in northeastern California, United States

Plumas National Forest covers 1,146,000 acres (464,000 ha) at the northern end of the Sierra Nevada in California, named for the Rio de las Plumas, or Feather River. About 85% of it lies in Plumas County, and it is divided into the Beckwourth, Feather River and Mt. Hough ranger districts, managed from Quincy. Its old-growth stands are mixed conifer, with Douglas-fir, ponderosa and Jeffrey pine, white fir, red fir, lodgepole pine, incense cedar and sugar pine.

The United States government created the Plumas Forest Reserve in 1905 and transferred it to the Forest Service two years later. This shift marked part of a broader effort to protect forests across the country.

The forest land held deep meaning for the Maidu and Washoe peoples, who hunted, gathered, and carried out their traditional ways of life across these grounds. These connections remain visible today in place names and in how people move through and use the forest.

The area offers a large network of trails with different difficulty levels, from short walks to multi-day backpacking routes. Visitor centers provide maps and information to help plan your visit, and the best time to go is from June to September when higher elevation paths are free of snow.

A 2002 Forest Service study mapped 127,000 acres of Plumas as old-growth, mostly mixed conifer stands of Douglas-fir, ponderosa and Jeffrey pine, white fir, red fir, lodgepole pine, incense cedar and sugar pine. The forest is also listed by the Old-Growth Forest Network. Nearly all of it has been logged since the gold rush, so no virgin timberland remains.