Part of
fir genus Abies
in
🌲︎ cedar / fir / hemlock / larch / pine / spruce family Pinaceae
in
🌲︎ conifer order Pinales.
Native to 🇨🇦 Canada; and 🇺🇸 USA Great Lakes, New England and 🗻︎ Appalachia.
🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48),
🗺 map (scroll down),
🗺 map (North America, Central America), 
🗺 today + with climate change (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).
🏛🌲︎ Provincial tree of New Brunswick.
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
Abies hosts caterpillars of 55 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
Saplings can be killed, and growth and regeneration of this plant can be severely limited, by large populations of
western moose Alces alces andersoni,
who will eat buds and branches in ❄ winter, when their preferred food (forbs, ♒︎ aquatics, and willow and birch shoots) is unavailable.
Unless moose populations are kept in check by predators.
[1]
[2]
Balsam fir is known to be a host for (in areas where invasive)
balsam woolly adelgid Adelges piceae,
a small wingless invasive insect that infests and kills
fir genus Abies,
especially
balsam fir Abies balsamea
and
Fraser fir Abies fraseri.