Appalachian forests

In all of North America, Appalachia's Blue-Ridge forests and mixed mesophytic forests have the greatest number of plant and animal species unique to an area. The forests stretch through Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, Virgnia, and West Virginia.

Like any ecosystem, the Appalachian forests rely on a diverse and decentralized array of living and nonvliving beings that interact in ways that stabilize the entire system. Energy flows from plants to the animals that consume them, to decomposers (microbes) that process animal carcasses so that plants can again use the energy.

In the Blue-Ridge mountains, plant species include magnolias, hickory, sassafras, ginseng and mayapple. Animals include red salamanders, black bears, and freshwater mussels. In the mesophytic forests, plants include ginseng, and animals include bobcats, land snails, and songbirds.

The Appalachian forests are currently threatened by coal mining and logging, and the mountain justice movement has arisen to stop the strip mining of coal and protect the Appalachian mountains and ecosystems.