Map of wood-filled areas in the United States, circa 2000[1]

In the United States, the forest cover by state and territory is estimated from tree-attributes using the basic statistics reported by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Forest Service.[2] Tree volumes and weights are not directly measured in the field, but computed from other variables that can be measured.[3][4]

This is only the total amount of timberland. Actual forest cover for each state may be significantly higher.[5][1]

List by state, district, or territory

Rank State, district
or territory 		Percent
forest
(2016)[2]
[note 1]
1  Maine 89.46%
2  New Hampshire 84.32%
3  American Samoa 80.84%
4  Northern Mariana Islands 80.37%
5  West Virginia 79.01%
6  Vermont 77.811%
7  Alabama 70.57%
8  South Carolina 68.19%
9  Georgia 67.28%
10  Mississippi 65.07%
11  Virginia 62.93%
12  New York 62.88%
13  Massachusetts 60.57%
14  North Carolina 59.73%
15  Pennsylvania 58.60%
16 United States Virgin Islands Virgin Islands (U.S.) 57.16%
17  Arkansas 56.31%
18  Puerto Rico 55.62%
19  Michigan 55.62%
20  Connecticut 55.24%
21  Rhode Island 54.38%
22  Louisiana 53.20%
23  Tennessee 52.83%
24  Guam 52.82%
25  Washington 52.74%
26  Florida 50.68%
27  Kentucky 49.35%
28  Wisconsin 48.98%
29  Oregon 48.51%
30  Hawaii 42.53%
31  New Jersey 41.72%
32  Idaho 40.55%
33  Maryland 39.36%
34  Texas 37.33%
35  Missouri 35.16%
36  Alaska 35.16%
37  Utah 34.48%
38  Colorado 34.42%
39  Minnesota 34.08%
40  District of Columbia 33.90%[6]
41  California 32.71%
42  New Mexico 31.99%
43  Ohio 30.92%
44  Oklahoma 28.80%
45  Montana 27.45%
46  Delaware 27.26%
47  Arizona 25.64%
48  Indiana 21.06%
49  Wyoming 18.42%
50  Nevada 15.89%
51  Illinois 13.64%
52  Iowa 8.43%
53  Kansas 4.78%
54  South Dakota 3.93%
55  Nebraska 3.20%
56  North Dakota 1.72%
— United States U.S. Minor Outlying Islands
[note 2]		 No data

List by region

Rank Region Percent
forest
(2016)[2]
1 U.S. territories [note 3] 56.74%
2 Southern region [note 4] 50.13%
3 Pacific Northwest region [note 5] 37.52%
4 Northern region [note 6] 30.04%
5 Interior West region [note 7] 28.14%
— Total 36.21%

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Forest Inventory and Analysis National Program - FIA Library". www.fia.fs.fed.us. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Forest Inventory and Analysis Fiscal Year 2016 Business Report" (PDF). United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  3. ^ "FIA Volume Calculations" (PDF). fs.fed.us. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  4. ^ Bechtold, William A.; Patterson, Paul L. (2005). Bechtold, William A; Patterson, Paul L (eds.). "The enhanced forest inventory and analysis program - national sampling design and estimation procedures". Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-80. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 85 p. doi:10.2737/SRS-GTR-80. hdl:2027/umn.31951d02988399b. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  5. ^ "United States Map: Percent of Area with Forest, 2002 | The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis". fedgazette. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009.
  6. ^ Nowak, David J.; Greenfield, Eric J. (1 May 2018). "Declining urban and community tree cover in the United States". Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. 32: 32–55. doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2018.03.006. ISSN 1618-8667. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Study shows 5,000 percent increase in native trees on rat-free Palmyra Atoll". phys.org. Retrieved 25 July 2022.

Notes

  1. ^ The forest percent is the percent of land that is forested (excluding bodies of water). Data for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam is from 2013. Data for the Northern Mariana Islands is from 2015. Data for American Samoa is from 2012. Data for the national capital of Washington, D.C. is from 2018.
  2. ^ There is a forest on Palmyra Atoll,[7] but there is no information about what percentage of land the forest covers.
  3. ^ The U.S. territories are American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. The U.S. Minor Outlying Islands are not counted.
  4. ^ The FIA defines the Southern region of the U.S. as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
  5. ^ The FIA defines the Pacific Northwest region as Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.
  6. ^ The FIA defines the Northern region of the U.S. as Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia is not counted.
  7. ^ The FIA defines the Interior West region of the U.S. as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

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