| During the last ice age, ice covered a large part of North America, and it was impossible for trees or any type of plant life to grow on these vast frozen expanses. Several small areas, especially in what is now Alaska, did escape the ice cover, but even these areas around the edges of the glaciers were cold, bleak, and barren. |
| Tundra and desert existed in the northern U.S. just south of the ice sheets. Farther south, however, in what is now the southern U.S. there were large evergreen forests, and even parts of the Great Plains were covered in trees. Because of the colder climate, these forests resembled forests which now exist much farther north. Southeast on the Florida Peninsula, conditions were drier, and at certain times this area may have been a complete desert. |
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