While people experienced with lichen field work may easily locate hotspots of lichen diversity, other botanists, ecologists, and land managers may not. We sought to describe lichen hotspots in Pacific Northwest forests in terms of forest structure and environment. Additionally, we describe the varying lichen communities of different hotspot types and how the hotspot communities differ from more typical young and old-growth forest stands. A retrospective, blocked design was used with 17 blocks in the Coast Range and the western Cascades of Oregon. Each block consisted of two young matrix stands, one old-growth stand (age > 200 years), and one diversity hotspot. Most diversity hotspots were in riparian zones, but some upland hardwood gaps and rock outcrops were included. We found 117 lichen species in the 68 plots. There was no difference in the average species richness between matrix and old-growth plots, but hotspots averaged five more species than those plots (blocked ANOVA p = 0.001). Eleven species were associated with old-growth plots, 26 were associated with hotspots, and 28 specifically with hotspots in riparian zones. Most old-growth associates were forage-providing alectorioid lichens while most hotspot and riparian zone associates were nitrogen-fixing cyanolichens. Among the hotspots, stands in riparian zones with a large proportion of hardwood trees were found to be optimal for the conservation of many native lichen species that occur infrequently in typical upland (non-riparian) forests.