The Temperate Rain Forests

Moist ocean air forced to release its moisture over mountain ranges in the Pacific Northwest region of North America has helped form a unique kind of forest.

The trees in this region are predominately evergreens:

  • Western red cedar (the provincial tree of British Columbia). These trees can be more than a thousand years old and up to 200 feet high.
  • Western hemlock
  • Douglas fir
  • Sitka spruce
These forests originally appeared 2 to 4 thousand years ago. A rich web of life has developed in this habitat. In more recent years, with increasing mechanization of logging operations, this ancient forest has been fragmented by human activity. Often, short term profit has won out over sustainable use of the resource. More than half of the original stands are gone. 		Big tree

The rivers that cut into the west coast of North America also provide spawning grounds for Pacific salmon. Environmentally insensitive logging practices have hurt salmon populations by:

It is difficult to predict how global warming will affect the temperate rain forest.

Temperate Rain Forest Links

[home]