Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: Is firewood banksia found in North America?
First described by the botanist Robert Brown in the early 19th century, no separate varieties of "Banksia menziesii" are recognised. It is found in Western Australia, from the Perth (32° S) region north to the Murchison River (27° S), and generally grows on sandy soils, in scrubland or low woodland. "Banksia menziesii" provides food for a wide array of invertebrate and vertebrate animals; birds and in particular honeyeaters are prominent visitors. A relatively hardy plant, "Banksia menziesii" is commonly seen in gardens, nature strips and parks in Australian urban areas with Mediterranean climates, but its sensitivity to dieback from the soil-borne water mould "Phytophthora cinnamomi" makes it short-lived in places with humid summers, such as Sydney. "Banksia menziesii" is widely used in the cut flower industry both in Australia and overseas.
Named forests are found within eight distinct regions. These forests may also be part of ecosystems, a number of which extend south into the United States. For example, the Northern hardwood forest is an ecosystem located in large areas of southeastern and south central Canada as well as in Ontario and Quebec. This system extends south into the United States.
The grey gum regenerates by regrowing from the base and branches after bushfire. Trees live for over a hundred years. The grey-headed flying fox ("Pteropus poliocephalus") eats the flowers, while the leaves form a staple of the diet of the koala ("Phascolarctos cinereus"). Leaves in winter contain less nitrogen than those in summer, which the koalas make up for by eating more in winter months. The brown-headed honeyeater ("Melithreptus brevirostris") and yellow-tufted honeyeater ("Lichenostomus melanops") have been observed eating gum exudate from the stems. 
Fieldwork at several sites around central New South Wales showed that the red wattlebird ("Anthochaera carunculata") and noisy friarbird ("Philemon corniculatus") preferred to forage on the foliage of the grey gum over other trees, with the former appearing to oust the latter if both species were present.
Southern Ontario has a very different climate from the rest of the country. It is the only area of Canada that has Carolinian forest. Many trees, plants, and wildlife in Southern Ontario are not found anywhere else in Canada. Some rare trees to Canada in this region include the tulip tree, pawpaw fruit tree and the cucumber tree. The Carolinian forests of Southern Ontario have in large part been destroyed by development sprawl. Very few original growth areas remain.
The red-eared firetail ("Stagonopleura oculata"), also known as the boorin, is a small finch-like species of bird. It occurs in dense wetland vegetation of coastal to sub-coastal regions in Southwest Australia. Its appearance is considered appealing, with white spots, black barring and vivid crimson marks at the ear and upper tail. Red-eared firetails are usually only glimpsed briefly, if at all, as they move rapidly and discreetly through their habitat. Most observations occur when their soft voice is heard, or in flight when flushed from the dense scrub. Males and females are similar in colouring and bond as lifelong pairs that occupy a territory centred on their roosting and brooding nest site. The species occupy a similar ecological niche to the beautiful firetail "Stagonopleura bella" found in the east of Australia, although unlike other species of the genus they only occasionally group together and are almost never seen in large flocks.
When lumbermen reached the Cherry Springs area in the late 1880s, eastern white pine and eastern hemlock covered the surrounding mountains. Lumberjacks harvested the trees and sent them down the creeks to the West Branch Susquehanna River to the Susquehanna Boom and sawmills at Williamsport. Clearcutting allowed silt to choke the streams, and nothing was left except the dried-out tree tops, which became a fire hazard. As a result, large swaths of land burned and were left barren, and much of the central part of the state became known as the "Pennsylvania Desert". The Cherry Springs Hotel itself burned in 1897 and the property was abandoned.
Since the Ontario forests are so plentiful the wood resource would be sustainable for some time. Most companies are doing their own part to help ensure that there is enough lumber within Ontario to support numerous generations to come. Tembec Industries has invested a large amount of time and money into planting trees. Tembec recently celebrated their 250 millionth tree planted in Ontario. The Ontario Government’s land use strategy helps protect and sustain all of Ontario’s natural resources, including wood products. The Ontario Forest Accord provides security by forcing the forest industry and the environmental community to establish protected areas, while at the same time meeting the needs of the forestry industry.
The boreal forest or taiga of the North American continent stretches through a majority of Canada and most of central Alaska, extending spottily into the beginning of the Rocky Mountain range in Northern Montana and into New England and the Adirondack Mountains of New York. This habitat extends as far north as the tree line (replaced by the High Arctic tundra) and discontinues in mixed deciduous-coniferous forests to the south. The "taiga", as it is called there, of Eurasia occupies a similar range on those continents. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the boreal forest covers 2.3 million square miles, a larger area than the remaining Brazilian Amazon rain forest. Although it is largely forest, the boreal forests include a network of lakes, river valleys, wetlands, peat lands and semi-open tundra.
Only 8% of the Canadian boreal forest is protected and over 30% has already been designated for logging, energy and other development, much of it within the last decade. The U.S. is the leading importer of Canadian wood products as well as oil and gas, having purchased 20 billion dollars (approximately 80% of Canada's timber exports) worth of Canadian forest products in 2001. Presently trees being logged in the Boreal are primarily pulped and turned into disposable products such as toilet tissue, junk mail, and catalogs. Decisions will be made in the next several years regarding the remaining lands and where development will take place.
Bark on mature redwood trees of coastal California can vary from 4 to 18 inches in thickness. Redwood bark is thick, stringy and tough; and can cause sawmill machinery to malfunction. Men called peelers removed bark from fallen trees in the woods through the early 20th century, but the process was dangerous and labor intensive. In the mid-20th century hydraulic barkers were built at several large sawmills including the Union Lumber Company at Fort Bragg, California, the Northern Redwood Company at Korbel, and the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia, California. The last was featured in a popular sawmill tour.
The Siamese fireback ("Lophura diardi") also known as Diard's fireback is a fairly large, approximately 80 cm long, pheasant. The male has a grey plumage with an extensive red facial skin, crimson legs and feet, ornamental black crest feathers, reddish brown iris and long curved blackish tail. The female is a brown bird with blackish wing and tail feathers.
The Siamese fireback is distributed to the lowland and evergreen forests of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. This species is also designated as the national bird of Thailand. The female usually lays between four and eight rosy eggs.
Tropical evergreen forests (or "tropical rainforests") are usually found in areas receiving more than 234 cm of rainfall and having a monthly mean temperature of 20 °C or higher in the coldest months. They occupy about seven percent of the Earth's surface and harbour more than half of the planet's terrestrial plants and animals. Tropical evergreen forests are dense, multi-layered, and harbour many types of plants and animals. These forests are found in the areas receiving heavy rainfall (more than 200  cm annual rainfall). They are very dense. Even the sunlight does not reach the ground. Numerous species of trees are found in these forests. Different types of trees shed their leaves at different times of the year. Therefore, these forests always appear green and are known as evergreen forests. These forests are found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, along with the slopes of the Western Ghats and parts of Northeastern states of Assam, West Bengal and Odisha. These areas experience hot and humid climate with the short dry season. The important trees of these forests are rosewood, ebony and mahogany
The forests are home to a number of endemic species including two flightless birds that no longer survive in the lowland areas of the island, these are the western weka and the largest kiwi, the great spotted kiwi. The varied habitats in the region support a mixture of other birds found here include the kea, the New Zealand kaka parrot" (Nestor meridionalis)", the New Zealand pigeon or kereru "(Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae)" and the New Zealand falcon or karearea "(Falco novaeseelandiae)". Farewell Spit in particular is an important site for wading birds and is on a migration route. 
The area is also rich in invertebrates including almost half of the known species of amber snails "(Powelliphanta)".
The waxwings are a group of passerine birds with soft silky plumage and unique red tips to some of the wing feathers. In the Bohemian and cedar waxwings, these tips look like sealing wax and give the group its name. These are arboreal birds of northern forests. They live on insects in summer and berries in winter. Two species have been recorded in Washington.Order: PasseriformesFamily: Ptiliogonatidae
Blue-leaved stringybark is a koala food tree. A field study conducted in the Campbelltown district southwest of Sydney published in 2000 found that koalas preferred Blue-leaved Stringybark and Grey Gum but only when the two tree species were growing on shale-based rather than sandstone soils. Stringybarks are some of the most difficult of all eucalyptus plants to identify. However, the bluish colour of the leaves makes this species fairly easy to identify.
In the post-WW2 era, from 1947 to the mid-1980s, the Forests Commission sponsored Australia's only military sawmilling unit, the 91 Forestry Squadron, which was a special reserve unit of the Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) . Established and commanded by FCV forester and WW2 veteran, Major Ben Benallack, the "Woodpeckers" as they were known comprised a small pool of specialised soldiers capable of rapid mobilisation in the event of a need. Several other Victorian departments such as the State Electricity Commission (SEC) did the same thing by supporting a construction squadron based at Newborough in the Latrobe Valley. It created a very active and capable part-time military group that completed many worthy projects across the State. The 91 Forestry Squadron operated bush sawmills, built timber bridges along the Murray River, the suspension bridge at Tarra Bulga National Park, the Snake Island jetty, logging roads and various demolition tasks. Numerous Commission employees and others from the forestry sector served long periods in the unit.
The finches have a near-global distribution, being found across the Americas, Eurasia and Africa, as well as some island groups such as the Hawaiian islands. They are absent from Australasia, Antarctica, the Southern Pacific and the islands of the Indian Ocean, although some European species have been widely introduced in Australia and New Zealand.
The coast redwood can reach tall with a trunk diameter of . It has a conical crown, with horizontal to slightly drooping branches. The bark can be very thick, up to , and quite soft and fibrous, with a bright red-brown color when freshly exposed (hence the name redwood), weathering darker. The root system is composed of shallow, wide-spreading lateral roots.
Coast Redwoods, ("Sequoia sempervirens"), are a native tree in the deep valleys and low to middle elevations (up to 750 m) of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Their growth and longevity is enhanced by the proximity to the ocean with its massive amounts of precipitation, the cool air which encourages fog, and the dimmer sunlight near the moisture-rich trunk-base region. Free-flowing, year-round stream help to enhance this environment and the cool, moisture-laden air often produces visible fog, which helps to replenish the trees. The bark of these giants is heavily laden with tannin, which helps to offer protection from damage by either fires or insects.
Cook's first expedition carried botanist Joseph Banks, for whom a great many Australian geographical features and the genus Banksia and a number of plant species e.g. Grevillea banksii were named. The reports of Cook and Banks in conjunction with the loss of England's penal colonies in America after they gained independence and growing concern over French activity in the Pacific, encouraged the foundation by the British of a colony at Botany Bay. The First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip left England on 13 May 1787 to found a penal colony in Australia. It reached Botany Bay in mid-January 1788. Phillip had decided to move the settlement to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson, but the British ships were unable to leave Botany Bay until 26 January because of a tremendous gale.
The taiga vole's habitat stretches from northwestern Canada to Alaska. Fossils have been found as far south as Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia, suggesting that the taiga voles cover a much smaller range now than in the past. Taiga vole fossils have been found south of where the Laurentide Ice Sheet once was during the late Pleistocene. Fossil evidence suggests that they moved northwest after the Wisconsin glaciation event. The taiga voles are mostly found today in boreal forests and tundra, which provides good evidence as to why fossils have been found so far south. Fossil specimens have been dated back to just before or just after the glacial maximum, when scientist believe that areas of the southern United States would have been covered by the boreal forests and tundra that the taiga vole prefers for habitat.
In some plants, the bark is substantially thicker, providing further protection and giving the bark a characteristically distinctive structure with deep ridges. In the cork oak ("Quercus suber") the bark is thick enough to be harvested as a cork product without killing the tree; in this species the bark may get very thick (e.g. more than 20 cm has been reported). Some barks can be removed in long sheets; the smooth surfaced bark of birch trees has been used as a covering in the making of canoes, as the drainage layer in roofs, for shoes, backpacks etc. The most famous example of using birch bark for canoes is the birch canoes of North America.
The common name of firewood banksia was a result of its quick-burning properties. Other names recorded include Menzies banksia, firewheel banksia, port wine banksia, flame banksia, and in the cut flower industry, strawberry banksia and raspberry frost banksia. The Beeloo Whadjuk Noongar people of the Perth region knew it as the "Mungyt". Despite its variation across its range, George noted that "B. menziesii" was a clearly defined species, and no formal division into subspecies was warranted.
The most widely distributed of all western banksias, "Banksia attenuata" occurs across a broad swathe of southwest of Western Australia, from Kalbarri National Park and the Murchison River (with an outlying population in Zuytdorp National Park) southwards right to the southwestern corner of the state at Augusta and Cape Leeuwin, and then eastwards across the south to the western edge of Fitzgerald River National Park. Along the eastern border northwards it is found at Lake Grace, Lake Magenta north of Jerramungup, and the Wongan Hills. It is restricted to various sandy soils, including white, yellow or brown sands, and sand over either laterite or limestone. It forms an important component of open "Eucalyptus" woodland as a dominant or understory tree or tall shrub. To the north, it is a shrubby component of shrubland. It does not grow on heavy (clay-based) soils, and is hence only found in sandy pockets. Within open woodland, it is found alongside "B. menziesii", "B. ilicifolia", "B. prionotes", "Allocasuarina fraseriana", "Eucalyptus marginata", or "E. gomphocephala". The annual rainfall within its distribution varies from .
During data collection for "The Banksia Atlas" project, a single presumed natural hybrid between "B. prionotes" and "B. lindleyana" (porcupine banksia), with fruit like "B. lindleyana" but leaves intermediate between the two parents, was found north of Kalbarri National Park. At the time this was considered an important discovery, as the parent species were thought not to be closely related. Mast's analyses, however, place them both in a clade of eight species, though "B. lindleyana" remains less closely related to "B. prionotes" than "B. hookeriana". Hybrids of "B. prionotes" with "B. menziesii" (firewood banksia) have also been produced by artificial means, and presumed natural hybrids have been recorded.
Bull Banksia is common throughout south west Western Australia, occurring from Jurien (30°17′S) in the north, south to Cape Leeuwin (34°22′S) and east to Bremer Bay (34°23′S 119°22′S E). It has been found inland as far as Badgebup and Dongolocking Nature Reserve. It is very common on the lateritic soils of the Darling Range, where it forms an understory in Jarrah and Marri forests. It will grow on nearly all soils of the coastal sandplain, but is somewhat less common there.