Wind River Arboretum

Washington State, United States

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Wind River Arboretum is a small research arboretum located in the Wind River area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest near Carson, Washington, within the Columbia River Gorge region.

Established in 1912 by U.S. Forest Service scientist Thornton T. Munger as part of the Wind River Experimental Forest, it is recognized as the oldest arboretum in the Pacific Northwest and was originally created to test which tree species perform best for timber in the coastal Northwest climate.

Foresters planted about 250 tree species from temperate and subtropical regions around the world in an 11‑acre plot, then tracked their growth and survival over more than a century, ultimately finding that most introduced species struggled while native Douglas‑fir, western hemlock, western redcedar, and other regional conifers proved best adapted.

Today the arboretum functions as a living forestry classroom, with short interpretive trails that pass labeled trees and signs explaining the long‑term experiment, set amid surrounding old‑growth forest and accessible as a quiet, educational day‑trip hike.