{"id":179,"date":"2014-07-16T00:16:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T00:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/?page_id=179"},"modified":"2020-03-24T05:46:13","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T05:46:13","slug":"0522-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/coniferous-2\/0522-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Okanagan Dry Forests (NA0522)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canadian portion\u00a0of the ecoregion is entirely in British Columbia and covers the dry Thomson Plateau squeezed between the Rocky Mountains and the Coastal Range Mountains. Abutting the Fraser Plateau to the north, it extends from just south of Wells Gray Provincial Park southward, to include the entire Okanagan Valley. In Washington, it extends south to the vicinity of Spokane.<\/p>\n

Adjacent ecoregions: i) the ecoregion to the west in BC is the Cascade Mountains Leeward Forests<\/a> (NA0507); ii) the plateau area extending off to the northwest is the Fraser Plateau and Basin Complex<\/a> (NA0514); iii) the high-altitude areas to the east in both BC and WA are in the North Central Rockies Forests<\/a> (NA0518); and (iv) the ecoregion to the east in all of WA is\u00a0the Palouse Grasslands<\/a> (NA0813).<\/p>\n


\"NA0522\"<\/a><\/p>\n


Description of the Ecoregion<\/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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The WWF site describes the vegetation of the ecoregion as encompassing alpine areas, forests, and grasslands. “Forest cover ranges from lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta<\/em>) with quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides<\/em>), white spruce (Picea glauca<\/em>), and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii<\/em>) on the plateau to Douglas-fir and pine grass at moderate mid-slope elevations. In subalpine areas, Engelmann spruce (P. engelmannii<\/em>), subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa<\/em>), and lodgepole pine grow. Valley bottoms contain ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa<\/em>) with bluebunch wheatgrass (Agropyron<\/em> spp.), blue grass, June-grass (Koelaria<\/em> spp.) and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata<\/em>)”.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least in Washington, the EPA’s “Okanogan Ecoregion”, as mapped at Bird Web<\/a> of the Seattle Audubon Society (SAS), is essentially the same as this WWF ecoregion although the latter excludes the valley of the Okanagan River to the west which is included in the Palouse Grasslands.<\/p>\n


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

Of the characteristic species (see list below), it is notable that a high proportion of the breeding species are resident year-round. A great many of these resident species only occur in the southern Okanagan Valley (southern BC and northern Washington) and not widely in the entire ecoregion.<\/p>\n

Overall, from an avian point of view, the ecoregion seems to be very well defined at least in Canada – many bird ranges correspond nicely with this ecoregion, as might be expected since the ecoregion is warmer than surrounding high-altitude areas to the east, west, and north. In Washington, the ecoregion is not so well defined in terms of bird distribution ranges. Many bird species ranges extend directly southward along the Okanagan Valley from Canada into WA but in WA this is a different ecoregion, the Palouse Grasslands.<\/p>\n

The Fraser Plateau ecoregion to the north is most similar, in terms of birds, to this ecoregion. It is however less rich in species and a large number of birds which are mainly resident in the Okanagan Dry Forests are summer breeders in the more northerly ecoregion.
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The Seattle Audubon site includes an excellent guide to the main birding sites of their “Okanagan Ecoregion” in Washington and a detailed month by month listing of all the bird species to be expected. A small part of their ecoregion is not included in the WWF ecoregion so the list of sites and the bird list will need to be carefully interpreted.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The WWF site notes that\u00a0distinctive birds of the ecoregion include: “California quail (Callipepla californica<\/em>), waterfowl, blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus<\/em>) [now split off as Dusky Grouse] and long-billed curlew (Numenius americanus<\/em>)”. None of\u00a0these are endemic to the ecoregion.<\/p>\n


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

The following resources would be of value to the birder traveling to this ecoregion:<\/p>\n