South Chilcotin NP, British Columbia, Canada Photograph by R. Careless   Western North America: Southwestern Canada into northwestern United States Temperate Coniferous Forests   17,900 square miles (46,300 square kilometers) -- about twice the size of New Hampshire Relatively Stable/Intact

· Bighorns to Black Bears
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Bighorns to Black Bears

The majestic mountain scenery of this ecoregion includes snow fields, glaciers, and alpine meadows. These forests are home to a wide range of wildlife, including bighorn sheep, mountain goats, grizzly and black bears, black-tailed deer, coyotes, cougars, and various raptors(birds of prey).

Special Features

This ecoregion includes parts of three mountain ranges. The southern half is made up of the eastern side of the Cascade Range, along with the Okanagan Range, which helps define the border between Canada and the United States. The northern half is made up of the Chilcotin Range, with elevations that reach up to nearly 9000 feet (2,700 m). There is considerable variation in climate across these ranges. For example, the western part of the ecoregion gets almost twice as much rain as the eastern part.

	Spotted owls eat mice, birds, frogs, and reptiles, but the northern flying squirrel is one of their favorite foods. This squirrel is abundant in old-growth forests.

Wild Side

Alpine communities include Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and lodgepole pine. In the montane forests, you'll find lodgepole pine, quaking aspen, white spruce, and Douglas fir trees. And at lower elevations toward the east, there are scattered ponderosa pines among bluebunch wheatgrass and sagebrush. Bighorn sheep often avoid predators by staying near cliffs. Spotted owls live in dense old-growth forests here and nest in the broken tops of old-growth firs.

Cause for Concern

Although 70 percent of this ecoregion is considered intact, a variety of human activities pose increasing threats. These include logging, mining, agriculture, and livestock grazing. And the construction of highways and railways, accompanied by high fencing in some areas, has disrupted the north-south movement of species such as grizzly and black bears, wolverines, lynx, and fishers.

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