{"id":146,"date":"2014-07-16T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T00:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/?page_id=146"},"modified":"2020-03-08T01:30:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T01:30:37","slug":"0506-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/coniferous\/0506-2\/","title":{"rendered":"British Columbia Mainland Coastal Forests (NA0506)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This ecoregion essentially covers the wetter western slope of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. In the north, the ecoregion extends southward from the northern provincial boundary at Prince Rupert; in this part of BC the ecoregion extends to the coast; in southern BC it is displaced to higher altitudes by the Puget Lowland Forests. Across the border in Washington it includes the higher altitude parts of the Olympic Park Mountains and the western slope of the Cascade Mountains south to the Yakima River.<\/p>\n

Adjacent ecoregions include the following: i) to the northwest, in Alaska, we find the Pacific Coastal Mountain Icefields and Tundra<\/a> (NA1117); ii) to the northeast, south to about the latitude of Terrace, BC, are the Northern Transitional Alpine Forests<\/a> (NA0521); iii) continuing southward on the eastern edge, to about the latitude of Bella Coola, off to the east is the Fraser Plateau and Basin Complex<\/a> (NA0514); iv) the remainder of its eastern edge southward is bordered by the Cascade Mountains Leeward Forests<\/a> (NA0507); v) its very southern tip is bordered to the south by the Central and Southern Cascades Forests<\/a> (NA0508); vi) the remainder of its western edge, northward to where it reaches the coast, is bordered by the Puget Lowland Forests<\/a> (NA0524); and vii); the Central Pacific Coastal Forests<\/a> (NA0510) surround the disjunct patch of this ecoregion in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington (and is also the ecoregion of Vancouver Island, across the strait in its west-central part).<\/p>\n


\"NA0506\"<\/a><\/p>\n


Description of the\u00a0Ecoregion<\/span><\/h3>\n

The ecoregion was described in the WWF publication \u201cTerrestrial ecoregions of North America\u201d (Ricketts, et al., 1999); essentially the same text can be found on-line at WWF\u2019s site: www.worldwildlife.org<\/a>. The map above is a screen shot from WWF\u2019s Wildfinder site, now offline. There may also be additional information to be found on this ecoregion\u2019s page at Wikipedia or at other sites.
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WWF notes that this ecoregion includes three different vegetation zones. “Low-elevation coastal forests include productive stands of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla<\/em>), western red cedar (Thuja plicata<\/em>), and amabilis fir (Abies amabilis<\/em>). The subalpine zone is dominated by forests of mountain hemlock (T. mertensiana<\/em>) and amabilis fir with some yellow cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis<\/em>). Alpine tundra also includes sedge (Carex<\/em> spp.)-dominated meadows, and lichen-colonized rock fields.”<\/span><\/p>\n

At least in Washington, the extent of this ecoregion is essentially the same as the EPA’s “North Cascades Ecoregion”, as mapped at Bird Web<\/a> of the Seattle Audubon Society (SAS). However, WWF’s ecoregion includes additionally the high altitude portion of Olympic Peninsula in Olympic National Park. The SAS site includes a very helpful detailed description of the ecoregion in Washington.<\/p>\n


Birds of the Ecoregion<\/span><\/h3>\n

The WWF site has no specific information on the birds of this ecoregion but notes that a\u00a0large number of species reach either their northern or southern limits along this extensive coastal ecoregion. There are no species that are endemic or nearly endemic to this ecoregion.
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The Seattle Audubon site includes an excellent guide to the main birding sites of the ecoregion in Washington and a detailed month by month listing of all the bird species to be expected. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


Resources for the Ecoregion Birder<\/span><\/h3>\n

Without any pretense to completeness, the following resources have caught my attention and would be of value to the birder traveling to this ecoregion:<\/p>\n