Trees 101 for Hikers

But before we begin, I think a lot of people don't realize this, not only here in Washington, certainly the rest of the country, but Washington is the evergreen state.

So people think, oh, okay, it must just be covered with trees.

So Jenny, which states, do you think Washington is in the top 10 states for the percentage of its land covered in forests?

I think it is not because Eastern Washington is a large geographic area that doesn't have trees.

And then also we have areas that are above the timber line in the Cascades and the Olympics.

So I'm going to guess that we are, even though we are known for our trees, that as far as tree coverage, I'm going to guess...

We're not in the top 10.

We're not.

And the other thing too, and those are all your rationale.

It's great.

And also we have very large urban areas.

So these are areas that formerly had trees.

So the number one tree covered state is Maine.

Number two is my home state of New Hampshire where I study.

West Virginia, Vermont, and Alabama.

Those are the top five.

Washington ranks 20th.

about 52 percent so just over half of the state is forested all right so that's percentage but here's the other interesting thing what about acres so the amount now those states i mentioned most of those especially the ones that are tiny uh which state and you should be good with this one which state has the highest amount of a forest period in acres i

well i want to say alaska

we'll stop there

But listeners, a lot of Alaska doesn't have trees.

And I'm going to tell you that like when when I go to Denali with guests on my tour, Denali has trees, but like not a lot.

And people often complain about that.

So but I'm going to guess that like just the Tongass National Forest by itself, which is most of southeast Alaska, would probably put Alaska beyond any other state.

Just that would be my guess.