Prince Edward Island, Canada Photograph by D. Kelly   Eastern North America: Southeastern Canada Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests   15,200 square miles (39,400 square kilometers) -- slightly smaller than Hawaii Critical/Endangered

· Rainbow Forests
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Rainbow Forests

The forests along the Gulf of St. Lawrence support a wide variety of wildlife, from black bears to butterflies. More endangered piping plovers are found here than in any other place in eastern North America. Throughout the region you will find hemlock, balsam fir, white elm, black ash, white pine, red maple, red oak, and black, red, and white spruce.

Special Features

This ecoregion is greatly influenced by the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, resulting in a maritime climate of warm summers and mild, snowy winters. This allows for good growth of hardwood and evergreen trees in the summers. Coastal forests have lower stature due to high winds, sea salt spray, and fog.

	One of the largest colonies of double-crested cormorants in the world -- with more than 12,000 pairs of breeding birds -- lives in this ecoregion.

Wild Side

Seabirds swoop for fish in the salt marshes and tidal flats, where beavers and muskrats are busy constructing their elaborate homes. Overhead flutter beautiful maritime ringlet butterflies in search of host plants on which to lay their eggs. A large breeding population of great blue herons waits for the tide to go out before beginning to wade in search of fish. In the winter, black bears hibernate in snow-covered forests. In the summers, moose wade into the waters to nibble water lilies and other plants, while on shore bobcats and raccoons busily search for food.

Cause for Concern

Only three percent of this entire ecoregion is still intact, and more than 75 percent has been heavily altered by human activities, especially logging and agriculture. By the1800s, a good portion of the forest had already been destroyed by conversion of land for agriculture and by logging for shipbuilding. Today, major threats include continued logging, agriculture, peat mining, and increased shoreline development.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.