This page may provide you some info:

https://www.campingbertrix.be/en/environment/nature-in-the-ardennes

It basically says Douglas Fir, Spruce and Larch.

reminds me of CCC tree plantings .... i have no clue if or where in your specified area ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=CCC+tree+plantings&t=ffcm&ia=images&iax=images

you might also try your county extension office ... either for direct info.. or a referral to the state forestry program ...

ken

What you see on those pictures are Norway spruce tree plantings. They planted an enormous amount of trees on the battlefields after the war, and as you can see on the pictures those trees are ready for harvest now, about 70 years are normal for NS. But there was not many such forests in the Ardennes during the war, monoculture tree plantings are a modern idéa.

You are looking for a spruce plantation (planted and manged for forestry purposes). In southern and mid NE, plantations are more likely to be pine. As you go into Maine, spruce plantations will be more common which will have a more similar look the Ardennes photos you provided.

Ken's suggestions on who to contact in your immediate area are good. You can find that look in any softwood managed forest harvested for utility poles and dimensional softwood lumber. Much of it is likely private but counties have been known to get into the game on public land holdings (at least in Canada).

Look around the Catskills near Hunter mountain and colgate lake. They are mixed forests but also full of pines. Colgate Lake Wild forest:

There are several large Norway Spruce plantations on state forest and state park land (i.e. public) in northwestern NJ and in various areas of upstate NY (Catskills, Finger Lakes to name a few). Both options would be an easy drive from NYC.

Calling the NY DEC or the NJ DEP offices would get you some more detail on access and filming permissions

As others have said, your photos show spruce plantations, but take note of huggorm’s comment. He is Scandinavian and so most likely more familiar with European landscapes than the average poster here. And since the trees you show aren’t old enough to be around during WWII, I would take some time to look up historical photos of the area to see what the forest actually looked like if you are trying for an accurate representation of what was actually there. I doubt that it would necessarily have looked entirely like your current photos of woody plantations. And if historical accuracy is not important, any forested park area or national forest should be fine.

Fun question, however, with little in common with much of what gets discussed here!

I found one photo on the Encyclopedia Britannica website:

https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Bulge/images-videos/media/84235/116378

I did a google search for “ardennes forest World War II” and chose the image tab and found a whole lot of images.

For snow and to most closely resemble the rolling aspect of the Ardennes, look for sites in somewhere in the Appalachians. Certainly here in northern New England there is snow in the mountains, but it’s a bit out of your preferred area.

A spruce plantation would probably be a good background for a zombie movie though. Just look at the first image posted in the starting post. There are no undergrowth what so ever, no shrubs, no herbs, no ferns, no life at all. Just dead needles and some occational fungus. That's why I hate Norway spruce so much, they kill averything that tries to coexist in an ecosystem.

I have a Pin Oak growing in a Norway Spruce. I have two apple trees, a peach, and 3 tomato plants grown under another. I have a lilac growing between two more Norway Spruce. What causes those large expanses of nothing but pine needles is a lack of light in the under story. The third picture shows a shaft of sunlight shining thru the canopy, and amazingly green growth.

i think ive seen the movies that provided your preconception as to what it all looked like.. when it happened ...

babs suggestion to look at actual historical photos is brilliant ... go figure.. it doesnt look like the old movie setting in regard the forest ..

ken

I'll have to dig out the Battle of the Bulge book and doublecheck, but a lot of the western front have been very thoroughly fought over during WWI. You shoot that many shells at a forest, and it all falls down. So depending on exactly where you are, the immediate forest could have been a 20 year old tree plantation for WWII.

Unless there is somewhere in the Poconos or northwestern NJ, my guess is the place to scout is going to be Fahnestock State Park. It's at some altitude, so they get and keep snow better than we do, even though they are about an hour south of us. They do a lot of wintersport things, and you can find snowcover data online. If you are willing to pretend about the snow, the NJ Pine Barrens may also work.

From what I remember of the movie there was a forest on top of a hill. There was an open field on a slope down to a farm house. The woods were evenly spaced rows of pines, as in an 8 foot spacing. Seems to me you need private ownership to get mixed use. If you're going to have live ammo and create craters in the ground, you must have privately owned land.

I'd suggest you look at North Carolina for evenly spaced pine forests, but there's no snow. I'm thinking of around Cherry Hill Marine Air Station.

For hardwood forests that are not evenly spaced; look at the Allegheny National Forest, in the Clarion, Tionesta, Pa area. You'll get snow there. Most of Appalachia, in NY, PA, WV, MD have forests everywhere. Did someone say north western NJ; at the Delaware River Gap. I recently owned land near Pittsburgh where you might have shot your scenes if you wanted hardwoods, so I'd say anywhere from there to Harrisburg Pa. and North to Maine.

Speaking of the Air Station, a military installation may already have the craters you need, Possibly with a hoe you could make one look like a fresh crater. There was a Naval Air bombing range near the Piney Barrens in NJ, Warren Grove NJ, I think it was. But that was 50 years ago? Is it still there??

edit Pine Grove NJ to Warren Grove NJ The pines were mostly scrub pines which at this bombing range burned from time to time.

Neat project! Give us a link to your project if its ever available.

F