Balsam Fir is an abundant, dominant tree in the northwoods country of much of Canada from northern Alberta to Newfoundland, the Maritime provinces, much of Quebec and Ontario, then down into New England, parts of New York, spots in northern & central Pennsylvania, some spots in the Virginia and West Virginia mountains, and the Upper Great Lakes of northern MI, northern WI & MN. It is still used a lot for Christmas trees, whether harvested in the wild or on farms. It can be an infrequent landscape conifer tree in the northern USA. It makes its best growth in draining wet, acid soils near lakes and streams. It grows slowly from 4 to 6 inches to maybe a foot/year, and lives up to about 200 years. Its soft, blunt needles are directly attached to the twig, get to about 1.5 inches long, and normally are very fragrant when crushed. It bears erect cones about 2 to 4 inches long at the top of the tree that disintegrate when fully mature; they don't fall as a whole cone. It very infrequently was used in landscapes in the Chicago, IL, area, but usually did not thrive due to hot and dry summer times and heavier, less acid soils. I've found a few trees planted in southeast Pennsylvania doing alright in some scattered locations. In landscapes it usually only gets to be about 20 to 40 feet high and about 10 to 15 feet wide and it can adapt to such situations with moist, well-drained soil with a pH up to almost 7.0. I just found a large, about 40 feet high, specimen growing here in southeast Pennsylvania near a church parking lot in an open site that really looks good and is full.

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