About one hundred tree species are found in New York forests. Sugar maple is the leading species and New York has more of this important species than any other state. Other major species include red maple, white ash, beech, oak, and cherry. Softwood species are in the minority in New York but eastern white pine, hemlock, and spruce are important species both for wood products and as a contributor to biological diversity and wildlife cover. Past land use practices, the different cutting practices of different landowners, and the variability in soil and slope all lead to a diversity of species within a single town or even on an individual ownership.
Private ownership dominates New York's forest resource.
Publicly owned forest land accounts for about 20 percent, including the 2.5 million acres of Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks and Catskills, some other small areas in State Parks, and about one million acres in state and county lands managed for multiple outputs. The wood using industry holds about 5 percent, primarily to supplement wood supplies at a manufacturing facility but also with a commitment to multiple products and good forest stewardship. The private, non-industrial forest owners are extremely diverse with wide ranging interests in, and objectives for owning forest land. Timber management for direct financial profit is not the dominant interest. Increasingly, all New Yorkers, rural residents or otherwise, are becoming urbanites, with urban ways of relating to the land, urban problems, and people-related issues on their mind.