Can't imagine picking one over another. There's something about a high-country stand of aspen. Western larch (Tamarack) is mighty fine. Big, old gnarly cottonwoods are haven. Nobody mentioned the lowly lodgepole pine. They give me firewood, dimensional lumber (with immaculate blue stain), cabin logs, fence posts, fence rails, and the list goes on. Many times, elk meat is associated with lodgepole.

Jack

I love the sugar maples and the smell of balsam.

Maples

No more Majestic looking tree than the white pine with its windblown look.
Immortalized by the Group of 7.

Porsilds white Spruce is also a nice tree.
I am also partial to the big tall stands of mature black spruce trees.Their trunks are thick straight and free of any branches except near the tops.
Makes good firewood in the north and easy cut haul and split in winter.

Scaly or shagbark hickory...Killed my first squirrel out of one, just like ole'byrd did.

Like the whole hickory family, axe handles, meat smoke, firewood, etc.

Loblolly Pine, specifically Improved Loblolly Pine. Since grand dad first planted up the cornfields in 1956 it has been a constant in my family's life ever since. Though personally I favor Longleaf as a much higher quality tree.

Mature old white oaks do it for me; if they could only speak…

Figuratively speaking the Liberty Tree among the forest of humanity.

One of my favorite individual trees is the Sacred Oak of the Oley Valley in southeast PA. There are lots of legends associated with it which can be looked up.

It is 87' tall, has a girth of 22' and a canopy that spreads 111'.

It's a white oak, more specifically a Chinkapin Oak and is estimated to be 500-700 years old. There hasn't been a core sample done for fear of damaging the tree.

Pictures don't do it justice. I have visited it several times.

The fire in my heatin' stove is burning lodgepole pine right this minute. Nice on a frosty morning.

As a squirrel hunter I also go with the hickory

For me it is the Beech. I think they naturally have a ton of character. They make really good den trees when they get older. They are good fire wood. Have always been my favorite. Great question !

Sugar Maple or a nice shaped Balsam.

What, nobody loves the magnificent boxelder, the possum of the tree world?

Dogwood and Redbud. When those are in bloom the turkeys are ripe.

Myrtle wood trees

A Burr Oak sentry tree, standing guard alone in the middle of a pasture.

Lots of beautiful tall trees on this list, but mine has to be the Bristlecone Pine. Some of the longest living trees on earth and some of the conditions they can handle is impressive. Makes for some gnarly twisted character. I love watching clarks nutcrackers pick and stash while glassing up on high.

Mine is the white pine. A true majestic tree.

Not all trees are equal, no better tree for wildlife than an Oak, Oaks benefit hundreds of species of wildlife while most other threes are luck to break a hundred.
And of the Oaks my favorite is the Burr Oak then follow closely is the White Oak (Quercus alba).

Trouble with Sugar Maples is if left alone and with no disruption they will create a forest with too much shade (no under story of other plants) and they are allelopathic. For those 2 reasons alone Sugar Maples are no good in my woods.

As far as just esthetics I'd prefer the American Beech.

Maple are pretty. White oaks for hunting deer and hickory for squirrels.