Pacific Northwest Coast

The Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregional Assessment is the product of a partnership initiated in 2001 to identify priority conservation areas in this ecoregion. The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) are the primary partners in this project. NatureServe, the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center (ONHIC), the Washington Natural Heritage Program (WNHP) and Nearshore Habitat Program of the Washington Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), and the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre (CDC) were major contributors of technical expertise and data. The project has also benefited from the participation of many other scientists and conservation experts as team members and expert reviewers.

The Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregion is a long, narrow ecoregion lying to the west of the Coast Range mountains and stretching from the southern border of Oregon to the northern tip of Vancouver Island. It includes nearly all of the Olympic Peninsula and most of Vancouver Island, British Columbia encompassing some 8,500,000 ha of temperate rainforests, beaches and rocky intertidal zones, bays and estuaries, and coastal rivers. Although the ecoregion's elevation averages only 445 m (maximum 2128m), the effect of the adjacent mountains, ocean intrusions, and glaciation in the northern half of the ecoregion has caused dramatic localized differences in climate, soils, and geology. The marine and estuarine environments of the outer coast add even greater diversity of communities and species. The ecoregion contains over 16,000km of streams and rivers, many of them entire watersheds but it also includes the lower reaches of several of major (third order or larger) rivers whose headwaters lie in adjacent ecoregions.

At its northernmost extent, the Northwest Coast ecoregion covers the majority of Vancouver Island, British Columbia with the exception of a thin strip of the Georgia Basin-Puget Trough-Willamette Valley ecoregion, which runs along the east coast of the island from just north of Campbell River south to Victoria. Vancouver Island is the largest island on the Pacific north coast. Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is located on the southeastern tip of the island. Vancouver Island is 459 km in length and varies in width from 64 km to 130 km covering an area of 31,284 square kilometres.

Vancouver Island is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Georgia, an area rich in marine life. It is a temperate area and this combination of rain and warmth created the characteristic rain forests of the island (Lillard 1986). From sea level the island rises into towering mountains that geographically and climatically split the island down its center. The highest mountain, Golden Hinde (2,200 meters) is located in Strathcona Provincial Park.

Large herbivores and carnivores include Roosevelt Elk, Black-tailed Deer, and Black Bear. Smaller members include American Beaver, Otter, Raccoon, Fisher, Marten, Striped-Skunk, Coyote, Cougar, squirrel, rabbit, and numerous rodents. A variety of birds such as Blue and Ruffed Grouse, Band-tailed Pigeon, Mountain Quail, owls, hawk, and songbirds are common. The wetlands are home to many waterfowl, including Canada Geese, ducks, herons, and various song birds. Anadromous fish such as Coho, Chinook, Chum and Pink Salmon and Sea-run Cutthroat Trout inhabit the streams and rivers.

Human activity, particularly clear-cut logging, plantation forestry, agriculture and development have heavily altered the coastal forests in this ecoregion. Only about 4 per cent of the region remains as intact habitat. Some ecosystem types, such as the coastal temperate rain forests in Oregon, have been virtually destroyed. Habitat loss has also been extensive in the Western Cascades portion of the ecoregion, due to the cumulative impacts of extensive logging, road building and hydroelectric development.