Pennsylvania earned its nickname, the Keystone State, partly because of geography. But anyone who has driven through its ridges in October knows the forests deserve credit too. Forests cover roughly 59 percent of Pennsylvania’s land area, or about 16.7 million acres, according to Penn State researchers analyzing USDA Forest Service data. That is a staggering…
I grew up thinking every tall tree in the woods was just “an oak.” Then a forester friend pointed out a tulip poplar towering over everything nearby. It was nothing like an oak at all. That moment sent me down a long path of actually learning what grows around me, and Kentucky gives you plenty…
I still remember my first real fall in the Catskills, standing in a sugar maple grove that looked like it had caught fire. No filter, no editing, just the tree doing what it does every October. New York earns its reputation for foliage honestly. Forests cover roughly 63 percent of New York State, totaling about…
I remember driving through the Coast Range for the first time and feeling genuinely small under the canopy. Douglas-fir trees stacked up on both sides of the road like green walls. Oregon does not do subtle forests, and I mean that as a compliment. Forests cover more than 30.5 million acres of Oregon, over half…
I still remember the first time I caught the smell of piñon smoke drifting over Santa Fe in early winter. It is one of those scents that instantly tells you where you are. New Mexico’s trees carry that kind of identity everywhere you look. Pinyon-juniper woodland covers more than 10 million acres of New Mexico,…
Maryland packs an unusual amount of variety into a small state. Mountains in the west, rolling Piedmont through the middle, and flat coastal plain running down to the Chesapeake Bay. Few states this size cover that much ecological ground. That variety shows up in the trees. What grows easily in Garrett County often struggles on…
Florida surprised me the first time I really looked at its trees. I expected palms everywhere and little else. Instead, I found live oaks draped in Spanish moss, cypress swamps, and pine flatwoods that stretch for miles. According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida’s forests cover more than 14.5 million acres,…
Texas is big. Its trees are just as varied. I have spent time walking under live oaks in the Hill Country and pecan groves near river bottoms, and every region tells a different story through its trees. According to Texas A&M Forest Service records, Texas is home to more than 300 native tree species, making…
I grew up thinking every oak looked more or less the same. A big trunk, lobed leaves, and acorns everywhere in October. That assumption did not survive my first real walk through a mixed hardwood forest. Oaks are wildly diverse. Some drop their leaves each fall. Others stay green year-round. A few barely reach shrub…
I still remember the first time I stood under a weeping willow. The branches brushed my shoulders like curtains, and I wondered how many kinds of this tree actually existed. The answer surprised me. Quite a lot, actually. The genus Salix is one of the largest tree and shrub groups in the Northern Hemisphere. Botanists…