Piney Woods | |
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The Piney Woods viewed from Loop 390 outside of Marshall, Texas
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Ecology | |
Biome | Temperate coniferous forest |
Borders | |
Bird species | 205 |
Mammal species | 60 |
Geography | |
Area | 140,900 km2 (54,400 sq mi) |
Country | United States |
States | Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma |
Coordinates | 32°N 94°W / 32°N 94°WCoordinates: 32°N 94°W / 32°N 94°W |
Conservation | |
Habitat loss | 22.235% |
Protected | 11.03% |
The Piney Woods is a temperate coniferous forest terrestrial ecoregion in the Southern United States covering 54,400 square miles (141,000 km2) of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. These coniferous forests are dominated by several species of pine as well as hardwoods including hickory and oak. Historically the most dense part of this forest region was the Big Thicket though the lumber industry dramatically reduced the forest concentration in this area and throughout the Piney Woods during the 19th and 20th centuries. The World Wide Fund for Nature considers the Piney Woods to be one of the critically endangered ecoregions of the United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines most of this ecoregion as the South Central Plains.
The Piney Woods cover a 54,400-square-mile (141,000 km2) area of eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas and the southeastern corner of Oklahoma. They are bounded on the east by the Mississippi lowland forests, on the south by the Western Gulf coastal grasslands, on the west by the East Central Texas forests and the Texas blackland prairies, on the northwest by the Central forest-grasslands transition, on the north by the Ozark Mountain forests. It receives 40-52 inches of precipitation annually.