Does anyone know if Upstate NY (Adirondacks specifically) has the same trees as the Pacific Northwest? (how much, pine)
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I know the PNW has a ton of evergreens (so many types) but does Upstate NY have them too?
Yes, in a general sense. Firs, spruces, redcedars, hemlocks, and yews can be found in the Adirondacks and the PNW. The Adirondacks are going to have eastern subspecies while the PNW will have the western ones, but overall they’re quite similar. For example you won’t see any Sitka Spruce or Douglas Fir in the Adirondacks, but instead Black Spruce and Balsam Fir (which you don’t see in the PNW).
There may be a greater percentage of deciduous trees in the Adirondacks, but evergreens are quite prominent as well.
Much of the addirondacks forests are similar to neighboring VT and NH, ME too.
unless you are using "pine" as a generic catch all phrase for all coniferous trees, then no, pines are not really associated with the PNW, unless you cross the Cascades to the east. Pines do grow in the coastal areas, but they are not a dominate species such as the Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar, Sitka Spruce, Big Leaf Maple, Red Alder, Black Cottonwood etc.
unless you are using "pine" as a generic catch all phrase for all coniferous trees, then no, pines are not really associated with the PNW, unless you cross the Cascades to the east. Pines do grow in the coastal areas, but they are not a dominate species such as the Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar, Sitka Spruce, Big Leaf Maple, Red Alder, Black Cottonwood etc.
I would definitely include the areas east of the Cascades as part of the PNW still. Plus, sugar pines do grow in Oregon west of the Cascades, almost to the coast in the southwest tip of the state. And Ponderosa pines grow in isolated groves in Western Washington as well as Western Oregon. Not dominant as you said, but not uncommon either. They certainly aren’t as common as the white pine in the Northeast and upper Midwest.
They both have pine, spruce, fir, cedar, but completely different species of each genus. Go out in October, you'll see that New York's deciduous trees all change to vivid colors, and in the west they don't. As a guess, I'd say probably not a single species occurring in both places, but there might be a few that are similar. But they will be either evergreens, with needles, and deciduous, that drop their flat leaves..
Same for bids. Of the most common 50 species, no more than 5 or ten are on both ends of the country.
So supposedly a lot of West Coast species, like Sequoia or Redwood, can actually grow in Appalachia (I think more WV / NC than NY), they just weren't there historically. Same with Douglas Fir, and that's weird because the species can grow in the craziest of environments out west. I think the glaciated mountains and the great plains served as a buffer so the species between the two sides of the US never really mixed. Colorado for instance, has very few species that grow east of the plains, just aspen and plains cottonwood.
There's definitely pines in the Cascades and along the west coast. Ponderosa's happy place is Southern Oregon, that's where they grow the biggest and best, actually making it the largest pine species in the world. There's more further east in Rockies where it's drier, but that's because not much else besides Ponderosa can grow in places like the front range of CO.
So, to answer the question, no Upstate NY does not look like the west coast with the native build, but that's not to say it couldn't if there were an effort to plant west coast species there. Balsam fir and the west coast firs like Noble fir are the same genus, but it's not the same really in grandeur. Colorado has Rocky Mountain maple bushes, but it's not the same fall experience as the sugar maples out east. I was surprised by the fall colors of Oregon, they had a better fall than CO in my opinion, with the maples having those huge orange to red leaves. The evergreens are dominant, but it was surprising how much color there was to see in the fall. I'd recommend that time to visit the area.
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