Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

20

71

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

20

66

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

20

51

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

20

30

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

20

30

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

20

46

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

20

34

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

20

34

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

20

47

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

20

57

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

20

41 30

10

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

20

51 38

10

Red Spruce

Picea rubens

Quaking Aspen

Populus tremuloides

Northern Red Oak

Black Cherry Quercus rubra

Prunus serotina

White Ash

Fraxinus americana

White Pine

Pinus strobus

Hemlock

Tsuga canadensis

American Beech

Fagus grandifolia

Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum

Red Maple

Acer rubrum Yellow Birch

Betula alleghaniensis

Balsam Fir

Abies balsamea

Modeled distributions 

of 12 tree species in 

New York

Rachel I. Riemann, Barry T. Wilson, Andrew J. Lister, Oren Cook, 

and Sierra Crane-Murdoch

Percent of Stand Basal Area per Acre

Percent of Forest Land Area

0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

20

41 30

10

If bars are larger than 

the y-axis, its value is 

printed above the bar

A “stand” is a 

group of trees that 

occur together at a 

particular location. 

Species dominance 

is measured by its 

percent of the total 

stand basal area.

The y-axis is percent 

of forest land. All 

bars in the histogram 

add up to 100% of 

the forest land in 

New York.

On 30% of the forested 

land in New York, there 

is no red oak.

On 41% of the forested land 

in New York, the forest is only 

0-5% red oak. Red oak occurs 

occasionally in these forests. 

On 15+7+3=25% of the forested 

land in New York, the forest has 

5-20% red oak. Red oak is a minor 

component in these forests.

On 0.1+0.1=0.2% of the forested 

land, the forest has more than 50% 

red oak. Red oak is the dominant 

tree species in these forests. 

On 3.8% of the forested 

land in New York, the forest 

is 20-50% red oak. Red oak 

is a major component in 

these forests. 

You’ll see some of this area in 

the Adirondacks.

You’ll see some of this area around 

the edges of the Adirondacks, 

Catskills, and Finger Lakes

You’ll see this in southern New York 

near New York City.

You’ll see a small 

area of this on the 

northeastern edge 

of the Catskills.

The x-axis extends to the limit found 

in the data. Here it shows that red 

oak has not been found to occur in 

New York at concentrations higher 

than 60%.

Map Description

These maps depict the distribution of 12 tree species across the state of New York. The maps show where these trees 

do not occur (gray), occasionally occur (pale green), are a minor component (medium green), are a major component 

(dark green), or are the dominant species (black) in the forest, as determined by that species’ total basal area. Basal area 

is the area of a cross-section of the trunk at 4.5 feet above ground (breast height). Basal area is a way of measuring 

how dominant a particular species is in a stand because of the way large trees contribute more to the total basal area 

than small trees. The map at the top of the circle (red maple) is the species with the greatest basal area in the state. All 

other maps are generally arranged to group species that commonly occur together. Of the 105 tree species recorded in 

New York in the 2005-2009 inventories, the species presented here are the top 12 in the state by total basal area, and 

together represent 74 percent of the total live tree basal area and 75 percent of the number of trees in New York. The 

center map shows where forest, nonforest, and water are present. In all maps, white is nonforest and water is blue. 

Each map has an associated histogram in which the colors and the range of values they span serve both as the legend 

for interpreting the map and provide additional information about the distribution of that species in New York. Because 

of the small pixel size of the data relative to the scale of the maps, the exact shade of green in the maps may appear to 

be a blend of classes in areas where pixels of many colors/classes occur close together. Below is a description of the 

histogram corresponding to the red oak map. 

You can see that some species, such as sugar maple, frequently occur in New York as a large proportion (>20%) or even 

a majority (>50%) of the forest stands in which it occurs (more areas in darkest green and black). Other species typically 

occupy less than 20 percent of the total tree basal area, either because of its tendency to be a minor stand component 

in this region (e.g., quaking aspen) or because New York is at the edge of its natural range (e.g., northern red oak).

These maps are created from data that is part of a larger dataset covering the contiguous United States (Wilson et al. 

2012). The data were modeled from tree data collected on U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) 

field plots (4,864 plots in New York), in combination with vegetation phenology derived from MODIS satellite imagery, 

climate data derived from daily surface weather data by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, topographic data from the 

U.S. Geological Survey, and finer resolution tree canopy cover data derived from the National Land Cover Database, 

which was produced by a consortium of federal agencies.

Field data were collected during 2005-2009 by: Paul Natiella, Wayne Roell, Jonathan Porier, David Berger, Scott 

Garber, John Minutilli, Christopher Coolbaugh, Anthony Olsen, Charles Butler, Casey Krogstad, Mark Peet, Matthew 

Pawlusik, Richard Grassetti, Michael Whitehill, Leland Swoger, Richard McCullough, Richard Starr, Karen Kubly, 

and Adrienne Evans. Field data were processed and compiled by Carol Alerich, Chuck Barnett, Dale Gormanson, Mark 

Hatfield, Barbara O’Connell, and Paul Sowers.

Suggested Citation

Riemann, Rachel I.; Wilson, Barry T.; Lister, Andrew J.; Cook, Oren; Crane-Murdoch, Sierra. 2014. Modeled distributions 

of 12 tree species in New York. Research Map NRS-5. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 

Service, Northern Research Station. [map; ~ 1:3,900,000].

For more information, contact:

Barry Wilson (barrywilson@fs.fed.us) or Rachel Riemann (rriemann@fs.fed.us)

Leaf images by Linda Ellis, Galena, MO.

The USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Forest Service Northern 

Research Station

Research Map

NRS-5

Publication Date 

September 2014

United States Department of Agriculture

Kilometers

0 25 50 100 Miles

0 50 100 200

Water

Nonforest

Forest

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri

Copyright:© 2014 Esri
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and 

activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political 

beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all 

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Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, 

Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Modeled distributions 

of 12 tree species in 

New York

Rachel I. Riemann, Barry T. Wilson, Andrew J. Lister, Oren Cook, 

and Sierra Crane-Murdoch

Map Description

These maps depict the distribution of 12 tree species across the state of New York. The maps show where these trees do not occur 

(gray), occasionally occur (pale green), are a minor component (medium green), are a major component (dark green), or are the 

dominant species (black) in the forest, as determined by that species’ total basal area. Basal area is the area of a cross-section 

of the trunk at 4.5 feet above ground (breast height). Basal area is a way of measuring how dominant a particular species is in 

a stand because of the way large trees contribute more to the total basal area than small trees. The map at the top of the circle 

(red maple) is the species with the greatest basal area in the state. All other maps are arranged to group species that commonly 

occur together. Of the 105 tree species recorded in New York in the 2005-2009 inventories, the species presented here are the 

top 12 in the state by total basal area, and together represent 74 percent of the total live tree basal area and 75 percent of the 

number of trees in New York.

The Authors

Rachel I. Riemann is a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station, in Troy, NY.

Barry T. “Ty” Wilson is a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station in St. Paul, MN.

Andrew J. Lister is a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station, in Newtown Square, PA.

Oren Cook is a former intern for the U.S. Forest Service and is currently a stewardship assistant at the Agricultural Stewardship 

Association in Greenwich, NY. Sierra Crane-Murdoch is a former mapping technician for the U.S. Forest Service and currently 

is a freelance writer in Berkeley, CA.

Forest Service Northern 

Research Station

Research Map

NRS-5

Publication Date 

September 2014

United States Department of Agriculture

Methods:

The tree species distributions were modeled at a 250-m grid cell size using 

imputation and canonical correspondence analysis techniques. Much of the species 

covariance found on the forest inventory plots is retained in the datasets, which 

means that each grid cell in the modeled datasets contains close to the same mix 

and proportion of species as found on the ground in the field data. Regionwide 

and neighborhood accuracy assessment results are available in Wilson et al. 

(2012), and are associated with each species in the online database (Wilson et al. 

2013). In addition, we are currently working on methods to calculate measures 

of per-pixel model uncertainty to accompany the datasets.

Dataset Reference:

Wilson, B.T.; Lister, A.J.; Riemann, R.I.; Griffith, D.M. 2013. Live tree species 

basal area of the contiguous United States (2000-2009). Newtown Square, PA: 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 

[GIS database]. http://dx.doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0013.

References:

Wilson, B.T.; Lister, A.J.; Riemann, R.I. 2012. A nearest-neighbor imputation 

approach to mapping tree species over large areas using forest inventory plots and 

moderate resolution raster data. Forest Ecology and Management. 271:182–198.

Map Disclaimer

This product is reproduced from geospatial information prepared by the 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Geographic Information 

System (GIS) data and product accuracy may vary. They may be developed 

from sources of differing accuracy, accurate only at certain scales, based 

on modeling or interpretation, or incomplete while being created or revised. 

Using GIS products for purposes other than those for which they were 

created may yield inaccurate or misleading results. The Forest Service 

reserves the right to correct, update, modify or replace GIS products without 

notification. The use of trade, firm, corporation, or association names in this 

publication is for the information and convenience of the reader and does not 

constitute an endorsement by the Department of any product or service. 

Manuscript received for publication

May 2014

Published by 

USDA Forest Service

Northern Research Station

11 Campus Blvd., Suite 200

Newtown Square, PA 19073

September 2014

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