A true vision in green, this XJ-generation Jeep Cherokee two-door appeared before me this weekend as if descended from the heavens. Forest Service Green is an S-tier color for an old timer 4×4, and this champion of sensible American off-roading is among the best to ever wear it. I believe former Jalop David Tracy (RIP) would call this a Holy Grail. If you haven’t yet prostrated yourself at the altar of FSG, now would be the perfect time to do so.
The Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service has been using this particular shade of green to patrol its 193 million acres of national forest and national grasslands jurisdiction since the 1950s. In the early 2000s the service started employing white vehicles because the extra cost to develop the green for each new vehicle was determined to be outside the budget, but it seems that the color has returned in full force in recent years.
There are a few stories out there that could explain why the Forest Service chose this green for its vehicles, though an official line has never been offered by the agency. One story says that following World War II this color was available en masse as surplus from a military branch. When you don’t have to paint tanks and planes anymore, the paint has to be used for something, I guess. Another tale alleges that the Forest Service painted a handful of vehicles in different shades and drove them to a wooded hill some miles away to determine which was easiest to spot from afar, and the green won. Yet another claim tweaks that one to say it was actually which color was easiest to spot through forest fire smoke.
Regardless of why the Forest Service chose this shade as its Forest Service Green, it looks incredible on every car, truck, and SUV the service has used over the last seventy-some-odd years.
