The New Brunswick Highlands ecoregion is located in north-central New Brunswick. The ecoregion is marked by warm, moist summers and cold, snowy winters. The mean annual temperature is approximately 3°C. The mean summer temperature is 14.5°C and the mean winter temperature is -8°C. The mean annual precipitation ranges 1200-1400 mm. This ecoregion is classified as having a moist, high cool temperate ecoclimate. The region is characterized by a predominantly coniferous forest of balsam fir, white and black spruce, white birch, and white pine. Black spruce and balsam fir are found predominantly on shallow soils on exposed uplands. Red spruce, red maple, and yellow birch occur locally, and sugar maple may be found in isolated pockets. White and jack pine with black spruce and white cedar are associated with scattered wetlands. The region includes the highest elevations within New Brunswick, ranging from 500 to over 800 m asl. Mount Carleton at 817 m asl has the highest elevation in New Brunswick. Surfaces of its concordant summits represent the southeast-sloping Appalachian peneplain. This rolling to mountainous, dissected plateau is composed of diverse Palaeozoic metamorphic and igneous strata that are mantled with hummocky, stony, and bouldery glacial till, colluvial and minor ice-contact deposits. Loamy Humo-Ferric and Ferro-Humic podzols are dominant in the region. The region provides habitat for moose, black bear, white-tailed deer, red fox, snowshoe hare, porcupine, fisher, coyote, beaver, ruffed grouse, bobcat, and marten. Forestry dominates the land use of the region. There are no major communities in this ecoregion.
This ecoregion is part of the Atlantic Maritime ecozone.