The forest cover of the United States mapped

At the time of European settlement in North America, primary or virgin forests covered nearly all of the East Coast (1 billion acres or 4 million sq. km.). By the end of the twentieth century, virtually no substantial tracts of virgin forests remained in the South. Remnants can be found in protected lands in parts of the Great Smoky Mountains and southwestern Florida, but almost all of the South’s current forested area has been earlier logged.

The map below shows the estimated area of virgin old-growth forests in the U.S. in 1620, 1850, 1920 and nowdays.

Area of Virgin Forest: 1620 vs 1850 vs 1920 vs nowadays

Nowadays, the map of American virgin forests will look like this.

In 1620, the U.S. forest land’s calculated area was one thousand twenty-four million acres, or about 46% of the total land area. Since 1630, approximately 256 million acres of forest land have been transformed into other uses, mainly farming. Approximately 2/3 of the net conversion to other services happened in the second half of the nineteenth century when an average of 13 sq. mi. of the forest was cleared every day for fifty years. By 1920, the forest land area had decreased to approximately 750 million acres, or 34% of the total land area.

Nowadays, If we consider all forests, 37% of the United States territory (about 1/3 of the U.S.) is forested. Maine has the largest percentage of forested land.

Map of the amount of forest coverage in each U.S. state

Most forested states in the United States:
1. Maine – 89.0%
2. New Hampshire – 77.5%
3. Vermont – 75.7%
4. West Virginia – 77.2%
5. Alabama – 70.6%
6. Georgia – 64.2%
7. South Carolina – 63.8%
8. Mississippi – 61.9%
9. Virginia – 60.7%
10. North Carolina – 59.9%

United States counties by percent forest cover of land area

More than 50% of the forest in the U.S. (441 million acres), mostly found in the east, is owned by some eleven million private ownerships.

United States Forest Ownership