The United States government owns 63.8% of all the land in Idaho and manages nearly three-quarters of the Idaho forest.

The rest of Idaho's forestland is divided between public and private ownership. The State of Idaho and other public agencies own 10% or 2.2 million acres; forest products companies own 5% or 1.1 million acres; and the remaining 10%, 2.2 million acres, is owned by ranchers, farmers, tribes and other private landowners.

National forests occupy nearly 40% of Idaho's land mass, more than any other state. Of the 20.2 million acres of national forests in the state, over 4 million acres have been designated by Congress as wilderness and reserves from timber harvest. Another 8.4 million acres are currently without roads. Because government owns so much of the Idaho forest, the future of Idaho's forest products industry is greatly dependent on timber from state and federal lands and influenced by forest management polices. For example, between 1980 and 1995, there was a 60% decline in the amount of timber harvested on national forest land.