The Northwoods are the

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, covering about half of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and parts of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. For the part within the borders of the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

, see

North Woods The Laurentian Mixed Forest Province, also known as the North Woods, is a forested ecoregion in eastern North America. Among others, this terminology has been adopted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Similar, though not n ...

. The Boreal forest and its alpine cousins are host to a wide variety of deer, ranging from the large moose to the whitetail deer. All of these large herbivores prefer the cool forest lest they overheat in the sun, but all need open land on which to graze. Of the deer, moose are perhaps best adapted to wetlands and thrive in the boggy boreal forest. The temperate conifer forests of the United States contain more than forty important cone-bearing forest tree species. These forests all have members of the taxonomic family called Pinaceae and most are commercially sought. However, some have uses outside the traditional forest product market. This massive softwood forest is spread over the entire North American continent and makes up the major portion of both trees and volume. There are five principal forest regions in North America that comprise the coniferous forest. The forests are equally spread geographically between east and west. Because of the forest's great size, and because of differing climate and soils, North America is favored by a rich variety of these "evergreens". This forest supports four times as many tree species as Europe does.

The Pacific Coniferous Forest Region in United States

This forest region runs along a thin strip of land for three thousand miles, from Kodiak Island in Alaska to the Santa Cruz Mountains near San Francisco and is known as the Pacific Forest. This forest has the most prodigious growth of conifers unequalled anywhere on earth. A combination of temperature, rainfall, and topography creates conditions favorable for growing the largest living organisms - the inland sequoias and the coast redwoods . The Olympic rainforest of Washington supports dense stands of western hemlock, western red cedar, Sitka spruce, and Pacific silver and grand firs. Douglas fir is concentrated in Washington and Oregon. Alaska's predominate species is the western hemlock and Sitka spruce.

The Rocky Mountain Coniferous Forest Region

This Rocky Mountain forest region is more sparsely covered with trees. The most important trees here are ponderosa pine, western white pine, Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, and Engelmann's spruce. The use of fire in this region made it possible for big stands of lodgepole pine to take hold. In the sub-alpine zone of the mountains spruce and fir predominate, and they are succeeded near the timber line by larch, whitebark pine, limber pine and bristlecone pine. The bristlecone pine has been discovered to be the oldest living thing.

The Northern Coniferous Forest Region

This Northern forest region spreads across four thousand miles, from Alaska to Newfoundland and down the higher peaks of the Appalachian mountains. In the north woods, white and black spruce grow. The soil throughout the Northern Forest is generally poor. The most visible tree type in the region are conifers. The most prevalent conifers are balsam fir, eastern hemlock, northern white cedar, and eastern white pine . This northern region supplied much of the lumber used in the first 250 years of settlement in the United States.

The Central Coniferous Forest Region

The Central forest region touches 30 states from Cape Cod to the Rio Grande and back up to Canada. This forest is mostly deciduous which means that is green in the summer and bare in the winter. Although the main component is hardwood, there are several important softwoods. Eastern white pine and Virginia pine are common throughout the forest.

The Southern Coniferous Forest Region

The Southern forest occupies the coastal plains of the Atlantic from Virginia through the Gulf States and into Texas and Missouri. It is generally a forest created from abandoned old fields - many of which grew cotton.

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