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Scenic mountain lakes, grasslands, and forests of fir and spruce trees paint a beautiful landscape in the Okanagan Dry Forests ecoregion. The lakes here are rich with trout and sticklebacks, and the forests are buzzing with the sounds of warblers and thrushes.
The gently rolling landscape of this ecoregion encompasses a diversity of habitats, including mountains, forests, grasslands, and rivers. The summers are hot and dry, and the winters are moderately cool with little snowfall.
A variety of reptiles, amphibians, insects, plants, and mammals are common in the Okanagan Dry Forests. Black bears, elk, coyotes, bobcats, and cougars are among the large mammals you can find here. At higher altitudes look for fir and spruce forests. Lower in the valley bottoms, where ponderosa pines mix with bluebunch wheatgrass and sagebrush, you can find California quail roosting in trees and shrubs.
About 80 percent of this ecoregion has been heavily altered by human activities. The growth of nearby cities and the conversion of land to agricultural use have been particularly harmful to the valleys and basins. Higher elevations have also seen the effects of livestock grazing, logging, open pit mines, and pipeline corridors. Some of the grasslands in particular have been seriously overgrazed by livestock. This has isolated many of the native reptiles and amphibians by preventing them from traveling among fragments of grassland habitat. In addition, most of the remaining patches of land in the valley bottoms are under intense development pressure and are slated to be converted to homes and farms in the near future. For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report. All text by World Wildlife Fund © 2001
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