In Canada, the New England-Acadian forests ecoregion includes the Eastern Townships and Beauce regions of southern Quebec, half of New Brunswick and most of Nova Scotia, and in the United States, the North Country of New York State, most of Maine, the Lake Champlain and the Champlain Valley of Vermont, the uplands and coastal plain of New Hampshire, northwestern Massachusetts, and ends down in the highlands of extreme northwestern portion of Connecticut.

The climate consists of warm summers and cold snowy winters with the Atlantic Ocean bringing rain all year round.

The seaboard lowlands of this region, which extends to mid-coastal Maine, exhibits a more mild climate and has somewhat distinct vegetation in which hardwoods play a more important role.

[2] The forests of this area were radically cleared for agricultural land by the 19th century and then renewed as many of these farms were abandoned following the migration westward.

Today the area is largely a mosaic of habitats influenced locally by micro-climatic differences (especially proximity to the Atlantic, and ecological disturbances).

Mountaintops of Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island (highest point 1,755 feet) may have minor alpine biota, krumholtz and other aspects, as do many other smaller isolated peaks throughout the region.

These tall mountains serve as refugia for arctic plants left over from the retreat of the Laurentide glacier at the end of the last ice age (the Wisconsin glaciation).

The western slopes are typically heath dominated communities composed of plant of the family Ericaceae, changing to grasses and sedges toward the harsher northwestern faces.

The presence of paper birch (Betula papyrifera), a successional species, is often an indication of past disturbances such as fire or logging in the forest.

Woody plants of the ground cover layer include American wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) and partridge berry (Mitchella repens).

The four dominant canopy species of the hemlock-northern hardwood forests are sugar maple (Acer saccharum), beech (Fagus grandifolia), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) and hemlock (Tsuga canadensis).

The most characteristic trees of southern and low altitude New England swamps are hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), tamarack (Larix laricina), balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), red maple (Acer rubrum), atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) and black ash (Fraxinus nigra).

In northern and high altitude swamps of New England the dominant canopy species change to tamarack, black spruce (Picea mariana) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea).

Animal species or subspecies that once roamed the region are the eastern wolf (Canis lycaon), eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar), Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister), sea mink (Neogale macrodon), wolverine (Gulo gulo), passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), heath hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido), boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), and the eastern elk (Cervus canadensis canadensis), all of which were wiped out from the region after the arrival of European settlers.

This forest has been radically altered over centuries by clearance for agriculture, mining and urban development including Halifax, Nova Scotia and summer homes in Quebec.

Logging is still a major industry in some parts, especially Maine and Quebec and agriculture is still extensive in western New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Vermont.