Illinois holds roughly 4.8 million acres of forest land, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s most recent Forest Inventory and Analysis report, spread mostly across the western river bluffs and the deep south near Shawnee National Forest. I used to assume Illinois was mostly cornfields with a few scattered woodlots. Then I spent a weekend…
North Carolina packs an unusual amount of tree diversity into one state. Forests cover roughly 18.7 million acres, about 61 percent of the state’s total land area, according to the North Carolina Forest Service. That’s the fourth-largest forested acreage of any state in the country. I’ve hiked both ends of North Carolina, and it still…
Michigan does not do forests halfway. More than half the state sits under a tree canopy, stretching from the hardwood hills of the Lower Peninsula to the conifer stands of the Upper Peninsula. The U.S. Forest Service reports Michigan holds 20.3 million acres of forest land, covering 54 percent of the entire state. That makes…
Alaska does not look like a place built for trees. Most people picture ice, tundra, and treeless mountains stretching to the horizon. Yet the state holds roughly 129 million forested acres, according to the Alaska Forest Association. That is more forest than the size of California and Texas combined. I found this surprising the first…
New Jersey wears its nickname well. The Garden State carries roughly 2 million acres of forest, which covers about 42% of the entire state, according to U.S. Forest Service data. That is a remarkable figure for the most densely populated state in the country. I have walked through the Pine Barrens in July and stood…
Hawaiʻi is one of the most botanically isolated places on Earth. Sitting over 2,000 miles from the nearest continent, the islands developed plants found absolutely nowhere else. The numbers back this up. According to the University of Hawaiʻi, roughly 83% of the state’s plant species are endemic, meaning they evolved here and exist here alone….
Michigan’s landscape holds more than towering maples and pine forests. Beneath that canopy, and often out in the open, grows a rich layer of native shrubs. These plants rarely get the spotlight. Yet they feed pollinators, hold riverbanks together, and shelter birds through brutal winters. Michigan has 20.3 million acres of forest land, according to…
Virginia is, in the truest sense, a forest state. Drive from the Atlantic dunes to the Allegheny ridgeline and you will pass through more forest types than most countries can claim. Forests cover about 62 percent of Virginia, roughly 15.7 million acres, according to USDA Forest Service data cited by the Virginia Department of Forestry….
Ohio’s nickname did not come out of nowhere. Walk through almost any county south of the glacial line and you will run into an Ohio buckeye within minutes. Forests cover roughly 30 percent of Ohio, about 7.75 million acres, according to the most recent USDA Forest Service inventory. That number has actually doubled since 1900,…
Massachusetts surprises people. It is one of the most densely populated states in the country, yet also one of the most forested. Forests cover about 60 percent of Massachusetts, roughly 3 million acres, according to the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation. Some towns in the western part of the state reach 90 percent forest…