Allegheny Highlands forests

Allegheny Highlands forests
Slide Mountain and surrounding peaks in the Catskill Mountains
Ecology
Biome	Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Borders	Southern Great Lakes forests Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests Northeastern coastal forests Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests
Bird species	198
Mammal species	58
Geography
Area	116,400 km2 (44,900 sq mi)
Country	United States
States	Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio
Conservation
Habitat loss	23.3%
Protected	16.9%

The Allegheny Highlands forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund.

The ecoregion consists of four separate blocks of mixed forest surrounded by lower lying areas of hardwood forest as follows: the Northern Allegheny Plateau in New York State and Pennsylvania including the Catskill Mountains, the Poconos, the Finger Lakes and French Creek areas; areas of the north and central Appalachians; the western Allegheny Plateau in western Pennsylvania and Ohio; and the upland plain around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

The ecoregion has a humid continental climate with warm to hot summers.

Most of this forest was cleared in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Although all individual trees species still remain, their quantities and distribution are radically different from the forest's original state. The Finger Lakes area has a particularly rich mixture of woodland, while the pinewoods in the Pocono Mountains are a unique habitat.

Upland hardwood forests include red maple (Acer rubrum), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), black cherry (Prunus serotina), and black birch (Betula lenta).

Allegheny hardwood forests consist of black cherry, white ash (Fraxinus americana), and tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera).