British Columbia

Wildlife know no borders

Old growth cedars, Incomappleux. Dave Quinn

Conservation Northwest works closely with Canadian and US allies to protect Canadian old-growth forests and wildlife, like grizzly bears, across the border. We use the tools of outreach, education, collaborative efforts, and industry and government accountability.

We have been for many years the major regional US group working across the border, because wildlife, if given a choice, range across the border freely. In fact, BC is a "pipeline" for wildlife going missing in the US. Nature knows no borders: wildlife need no passports to cross. What they do need are some assurance of protection and protected habitat.

Our work maintains a landscape in lower British Columbia that not only supplies diversity southward to the United States but supports wide-ranging species such as mountain caribou, grizzly bears, lynx, and bull trout.

Diverse landscapes, rich wildlife

From Coast to Rockies, lower British Columbia crosses several distinct ecosystems, from mountains to deserts to rainforest. Traveling across BC you go from the drier lands on the east side of the Coast Range, to very dry pocket deserts and grasslands of the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys, to wetter Columbia Mountains and interior rainforest, to the westernmost range of the Rockies on the rain shadow side of the Columbia and Purcell mountains. The province's extremely diverse landforms provide habitat to equally rich and varied wildlife.

Inland Temperate Rainforest

To date, much of Conservation Northwest's work in the region has focuses on the Inland Temperate Rainforest, which stretches from the headwaters of the Fraser and Columbia Rivers to the northern extremes of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. This interior rainforest is the only place on earth where temperate rainforests are found so far from any ocean.

Here on the windward side of the BC Rockies, weather systems from the Pacific Ocean collide with the Columbia Mountains to create lush interior forests, habitat for many unique plants and animals. Mountain caribou are one of hundreds of species of wildlife that rely on the Inland Temperate Rainforest.

In 2009, thanks to collaborative work of the Mountain Caribou Project, millions of hectares of inland temperate rainforest habitat was protected for the highly endangered mountain caribou. The Southern Selkirks herd of mountain caribou range down over the border the Selkirk Mountains of extreme northeastern Washington.

Mountain caribou. BC gov photo

Logging is big business in British Columbia, and the US timber market drives the cutting of old-growth forests in the Inland Temperate Rainforest. This province of British Columbia exports two-thirds of the wood products from its old-growth forests to customers in the US. While we support a vibrant timber industry and lumber trade between our two countries, we encourage Americans and Canadians to buy wood products only if they are ecologically sustainable and from certified sources. Protecting older forests protects mountain caribou and hundreds of other species of plants and animals.