Tree Canopy in the United States of America
My theme for today’s map is green and I instantly knew I wanted to do something with trees and forests. One of my favorite hobbies is hiking and backpacking and I am happiest when I am outdoors. I live in the Northeastern US where we get to experience all four seasons, and each one affords something special to experience. A lot of the forests I have easy access to are predominantly deciduous and with cooler weather, most tree branches are bare, dramatically contrasting with the varied topography and landscapes of South Central Pennsylvania. For today’s map, I decided to map forests across the United States to capture the beauty that are our forests.
For my data source, I decided to use the National Landcover Database, which is built and maintained by the United States Geological Survey. For my approach, I decided to keep things simple. The NLCD contains multiple landcover layers, but I limited my map to include just the following three layers:
Deciduous Forests
Evergreen Forests
Mixed Forests (both deciduous and evergreen)
For my map area, I wanted to include all 50 states and added inserts for Alaska and Hawaii in the bottom left corner. In looking at Font, I went with Sarah Bell’s eponymous High Alpine font. If you like this bespoke font as much as I do, you should consider purchasing it over at Sarah’s website.
Below is my resulting map.
This map really is just the result of plotting some tree landcover data and it map didn’t require any fancy cartography tricks, but I like how it turned out just the same. In looking at it, you can clearly make out The Mississippi river and agricultural lands near it as well as the central plains, and desert southwest, which are largely devoid of large tracts of forested lands of any type. You can also see the diversity of forest types across the country. The Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, and northern Gulf Coast are dominated by evergreen forests, while the mid-Atlantic and northeast are largely deciduous. What jumps out at me as that, even for the vast spread of buildings and sprawl that cover the Northeastern corridor of the US, where I live, there are still a lot of green places to find and enjoy.