Forest

Forest, area of land covered by trees. Forests are important for their economic, environmental, and recreational uses, and as habitats for plants, insects, birds, and other animals. As ecosystems, forests are classified as tropical rain forests, tropical seasonal forests, temperate deciduous forests, temperate evergreen forests, boreal forests, and savannas. They may also be classified by dominant tree type, such as needleleaf, coniferous, or deciduous. Before the 1600s most of the land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River was covered by forests. Today, the United States has about 753 million acres (322 million hectares) of forest area.