How many trees are there in the United States? (Including Alaska and Hawaii)

[4yearlurker]

Hey Sam’have you ever been to the Pine Barrens of south Jersey? One could get lost out there!

[Delta 21]

Dont forget the 3 in my yard.

[Muleteam1]

Not to disappoint you but the U.S. Forest Service doesn’t even know how many trees they have in any given National Forest. I’ve tried unsuccesfully to get this information when preparing environmental assessments in the past. Either they don’t have a clue, or they are like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when it comes to endangered species, they will not tell. It’s my guess that neither agency has a clue as to the resources they are in charge of managing or protecting.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

For example, states like Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada are all desert so no trees there

I think you need to take a geography course..

[teenyelliott]

I have no idea how anyone could come up with an accurate number, and who would know if they were wrong, anyway? That is a number that no one can prove.

Heck, I've planted about twenty trees on my property just this year. I don't even know how many trees I have.

[Jet Jaguar]

I think you need to take a geography course..

Agreed!

[jjotto]

Huh?

A modest 100 trees per acre in America’s 700+ million acres of forest is what? - 70 billion trees? Whew! That’s a lot of trees!

[cowboyway]

For example, states like Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada are all desert so no trees there. Florida is just swamp, beaches and condos so not many there either (but there are a lot of palm trees we'll have to count).

Two bad assumptions.

Arizona and New Mexico both have lots of trees.

And Florida is covered in trees and not just palms. North central Florida is a lot like most of the rest of the South with tall pines, live oaks and thousands of other species typical of the South.

And you have to count citris trees, right?

Even the everglades has numerous tree species other than palm.

You'll have to readjust your figures.

[eastforker]

1.2 billion is a low ball number, bet it is closer to 10 billion.

[pax_et_bonum]

I would enjoy talking with the teacher who came up with this lame-brained assignment.

[djf]

I was gonna guess a trillion then figured that would be too high. 10 - 100 billion was a lowball guess on my part. At first I was surprised by the 600 million figure for Alaska, but after thinking about it, even though Alaska is really, really big, huge amounts of it are mountainous and have few trees.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"To add to the challenge, Alaska and Hawaii have been included but not Canada."

Thus the question: How many trees are there in the United States? Including AK and HI and excluding Canada didn't add a darn thing to the challenge.

[PeteB570]

2 dogwoods, 6 lob lolly pines, 1 maple, 2 cherry and one sassafras.

Add mine to his count.

[SAJ]

Easiest thing in the world to research.

Who undoubtedly knows as much or more about trees than anyone else in the USA?

Call Weyerhauser.

[woofer]

He was asked to find out how many trees there are in the United States.

He'd better get crackin', Sam, if he's gonna count every last one. I'd just say there are "lots of trees, so many that to enumerate the quantity would but be a trifle."

Then I'd throw in a couple of references to "carbon dioxide" and a "global warming" catch phrase for the "A" grade.

The student who comes closest to the answer on Monday will get to give a presentation to the class on how he/she did the research to come up with the most right answer.

Gee whiz, whats second place get? Make two presentations and a poem recital?

[mrs. a]

We cut down two of our locust trees this weekend so don’t forget to back those out of his count.

I’d hate to see him lose by two!

[Deb]

I was not aware there would math in the forum today. Signed, A Concerned Blonde

[SamAdams76]

Well upon further reflection, there are probably 1.2 billion trees in Rhode Island alone. So I think the actual number of trees in United States would be closer to several trillion.

I kind of threw that 1.2 billion number out there just to get a reaction. And yes, I know there are many millions trees in Arizona and New Mexico. Jersey too.

I have about a half acre of woods in my backyard and there are several hundred trees there easy.

[Dust in the Wind]

After you get a count could you let me know what the oxygen output is...or how much ground water we could put to other uses if we cut them all down? heh heh

[Fraxinus]

Foresters only count the number of individual trees when doing a 100% tally for sale, 100% tallies are only done on smaller finite blocks, and not done for every sale. Forestland figures are based on acreage with the Density (#of trees per unit area) changing by forest type, age of stand, site index (fertility), and type and severity of last disturbance.