The North American Forests describes where, why, and how the many kinds of trees found in this continent grow in silvical associations, called forest cover types. The writer, with four collaborators, has in mind (1) students in forestry school courses that involve regional silviculture, (2) students in other natural resource disciplines who need a grasp of the geography, the ecology, and the silvicultural practices required to sustain North American forests, and (3) inquiring lay people anxious to understand why foresters do what they do in order to assure adequate goods and services from this richly diverse and fascinating renewable resource.

Over a hundred forest cover types, involving several times that many species, are described in the 13 chapters. Readers travel to woodlands as diverse as the Arctic tundra and Florida's tropics, the Atlantic's coastal pond pines and the Pacific's Monterey pines, and the summits of Engelmann spruce and sea-level swamps of baldcypress.

The author concludes five decades of practicing forestry, including treks into virtually every “neck of the woods" of which he writes, with this self-refresher course. Perusing files of field notes and photographs, he revisits for himself -- and takes the readers along to see -- the continent's forests.