New York’s evergreen forests are dominated by cone-bearing trees such as spruce, balsam fir, hemlock, tamarack, and white pine. These cold, wet habitats are found in New York at high elevations: the Adirondack Mountains, Tug Hill Plateau, Taconic Highlands, Appalachian Plateau, and the Catskill Peaks. 

Several bird species that live in evergreen forests breed in New York only in the Adirondacks and Catskills above 3,000 feet elevation. Since 1894 the public land in these forest preserves has been protected by the New York State Constitution, which declares that they “shall be forever kept as wild forest lands.”