Northern hardwood forest

The northern hardwood forest is a general type of North American forest ecosystem found over much of southeastern and south-central Canada, Ontario, and Quebec, extending south into the United States in northern New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, and west along the Great Lakes to Minnesota and western Ontario.

Sugar maple, yellow birch, American beech, and white ash are the common key indicator tree and shrub species in the Northern Hardwood Forest.

Herb and heath species include wintergreen, wild sarsaparilla, and wood sorrel.

Birds and animals common to the Northern Hardwood Forest include the black-capped chickadee, white-throated sparrow, cedar waxwing, porcupine, snowshoe hare, white-tailed deer, and American red squirrel.

This is particularly true of New England, New York, and Eastern Canada, where the land was cleared to make room for farms in the 17th and 18th centuries and subsequently abandoned in the 19th century when farming interests migrated to the midwestern United States and central Canada.