The Pantabangan–Carranglan Watershed Forest Reserve is a conservation area located in the upper reaches of the Pampanga River in Nueva Ecija, Philippines, and borders the Sierra Madre and Caraballo Mountains in Aurora and Nueva Vizcaya. It encompasses of the drainage basin surrounding the Pantabangan Lake, an impoundment of the Pampanga River by the Pantabangan Dam. The multi-purpose dam is situated at the confluence of Pampanga River's two headwaters, namely the Pantabangan and Carranglan Rivers in the municipality of Pantabangan. It stretches above the dam site for to where Carranglan River originates in the Caraballo on the north, and for to where Pantabangan River originates in the Sierra Madre on the east. It is considered a critical watershed for the agricultural economy and hydroelectric power generation in the region of Central Luzon. History Proclamation No. 561 established the reserve's boundaries and protecting the area for watershed purposes on May 21, 1969. Its management was handed over to the Bureau of Forestry of the DENR, the Reforestation Administration, the National Waterworks and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA, now the MWSS), the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Bureau of Public Works (now DPWH), Bureau of Public Soils (now Bureau of Soils and Water Management), and the National Power Corporation. A month later, President Marcos authorized the construction of the Upper Pampanga River Project at the reserve with the Pantabangan Dam as its centerpiece. Construction started in March 1971 with residents at the dam site relocated to the upper portion of Pantabangan by the Department of Agrarian Reform and NIA. By the time the Pantabangan Dam was completed in August 1974, eight barrios have been submerged by its reservoir, namely the old Pantabangan poblacion, Conversión, Villarica, San Juan, Cadaclan, Napon-Napon, Liberty and Marikit. Description The Pantabangan–Carranglan Watershed is in the north of Nueva Ecija, on its border with Nueva Vizcaya and Aurora, approximately north of Manila. It is spread over 36 barangays or villages in five municipalities: Carranglan, Pantabangan, Alfonso Castañeda, Dupax del Sur and Maria Aurora. The reserve consists of flat areas and rolling to rugged and steep mountainous landscape. In the Caraballo and Sierra Madre range, it is dissected by narrow flat-bottomed valleys and drained by the Carranglan and Pantabangan rivers, the headwaters of Pampanga River, which eventually feed into the Pantabangan Lake, one of the largest reservoirs in Southeast Asia and one of the cleanest in the Philippines. The reservoir is a major water