The North American inland temperate rainforest is a 7 million hectare disjunct

temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American ...

spreading over parts of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

as well as

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

and

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

on the US side. Its patches are located on the windward slopes of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

and the

Columbia Mountains The Columbia Mountains are a group of mountain ranges along the upper Columbia River in British Columbia, Montana, Idaho and Washington. The mountain range covers 135,952 km² (52,491 sq mi). The range is bounded by the Rocky Mountain T ...

, extending roughly over 1000km from 54° North to 45° North. It is one of the largest inland temperate and boreal rainforests in the world.

General description

Setting and extension

The North American inland rainforest is located in the so-called interior wet-belt, approximately 500-700km inland from the pacific coast on western, windward mountain slopes and valley bottoms of the

and the

. The interior wet-belt refers to a discontinuous band of humid forest patches, that are scattered over 1000km between Purden Lake in Canada’s

(54° North) and Montana and Idaho's

Bitterroot Mountains The Northern and Central Bitterroot Range, collectively the Bitterroot Mountains ( Salish: čkʷlkʷqin), is the largest portion of the Bitterroot Range, part of the Rocky Mountains and Idaho Batholith, located in the panhandle of Idaho and we ...

and Idaho’s

Salmon River Mountains The Salmon River Mountains are a major mountain range covering most of the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho. The range is over long and its boundaries are usually defined by the Salmon River and its large tributary forks. Part of the centr ...

(45° North). It is closely associated with the

North Central Rockies forests The North Central Rockies forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of Canada and the United States. This region overlaps in large part with the North American inland temperate rainforest and gets more rain on average than the South Ce ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

designated by the WWF, which extends over a similar range but incorporates various non-temperate rainforest ecosystems.

Recognition as a rainforest

The North American inland temperate rainforest region is one of seven definitive

regions according to the Rainforest Distribution Model by Dominick DellaSala, next to * the

Pacific temperate rainforests The Pacific temperate rainforests of western North America is the largest temperate rain forest region on the planet as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (other definitions exist). The Pacific temperate rainforests lie along the western side of ...

* the

Valdivian temperate rainforest The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainfores ...

* the Japanese temperate rainforest * the

Eastern Canadian temperate rainforest Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

* the

European rainforest relicts European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

* and the

Australasian temperate rainforest Australasian is the adjectival form of Australasia, a geographical region including Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea. Australasian may also refer to: Institutions Commercial * Australasian Correctional Management, private company running ...

, including the

Tasmanian temperate rainforest The Tasmanian temperate rain forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in western Tasmania. The ecoregion is part of the Australasian realm, which includes Tasmania and Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and a ...

and temperate rainforests in Eastern Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. It has been started to be recognized as an “inland counterpart” of the coastal

Pacific temperate rainforest The Pacific temperate rainforests of western North America is the largest temperate rain forest region on the planet as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (other definitions exist). The Pacific temperate rainforests lie along the western side o ...

extending from

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Northwestern United States, Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first President of the United States, U.S. p ...

up to south-central

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

. This is mainly, because the Inland rainforests share a great number of oceanic

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

rainforest patches along the Clearwater River, a mean annual temperature of 5.4°C has been measured. In British Columbian Inland rainforest areas, the mean annual temperature ranges from 2.7 to 4.5°C. In the coldest months, the mean temperature of these region lies between -8 and -9.5°C.

Precipitation patterns

In general, the inland rainforest patches are restricted to areas with extraordinarily humid climate. For most of the year, pacific storm systems and maritime air masses moved into the interior by the prevailing

westerlies The westerlies, anti-trades, or prevailing westerlies, are prevailing winds from the west toward the east in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude. They originate from the high-pressure areas in the horse latitudes and tren ...

create a zone of high precipitation when intersecting with the longitudinally oriented mountain ranges of that area (see

). This pattern changes in the southern regions during the summer months, when winds from

and the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...

dominate. This results in a substantially lower average rainfall in July and August in the southern rainforest patches than in the rest of the year, leading to a generally drier summer than in the North where the summers are cool and wet. In general, mean annual precipitation ranges between 700 and 1,500mm. For British Columbian rainforest patches, the mean annual precipitation varies between 788mm and 1,240mm. Because of low winter temperatures, winter precipitation generally falls as snow. Snowpack melting and a relatively high precipitation in early summer offset any potential drying effect caused by the colder winters and warmer summers.

Flora

The inland rainforest patches are habitat for a variety of tree species. Probably the first species to colonize the northern regions after the last deglaciation was the lodgepole pine (''

Pinus contorta ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine ...

''). The oldest stands however are usually dominated by western red cedar (''

Thuja plicata ''Thuja plicata'' is an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to western North America. Its common name is western redcedar (western red cedar in the UK), and it is also called Pacific redcedar, giant arborvitae, w ...

''), which are also the oldest individuals in these forests. Western red cedar and Western hemlock (''

Tsuga heterophylla ''Tsuga heterophylla'', the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Sonom ...

'') are the most common tree species in low elevation inland rainforest patches, while the high elevation rainforest regions of British Columbia are dominated by Engelmann spruce (''

Picea engelmannii ''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered cany ...

'') and subalpine fir (''

Abies lasiocarpa ''Abies lasiocarpa'', the subalpine fir or Rocky Mountain fir, is a western North American fir tree. Description ''Abies lasiocarpa'' is a medium-sized evergreen conifer with a very narrow conic crown, growing to tall, exceptionally , with a t ...

''). In northern Idaho rainforest patches, grand fir (''

Abies grandis ''Abies grandis'' (grand fir, giant fir, lowland white fir, great silver fir, western white fir, Vancouver fir, or Oregon fir) is a fir native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California of North America, occurring at altitudes of sea leve ...

'') and red alder (''

Alnus rubra ''Alnus rubra'', the red alder, is a deciduous broadleaf tree native to western North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana). Description Red alder is the largest species of alder in North A ...

'') seem to play an important role. In Canada, the domination of red cedar and hemlock has led to the classification of the inland rainforest areas as belonging to the Interior Cedar-Hemlock Biogeoclimatic zone (ICH). In the United States, the inland rainforest regions are also classified as significant habitat types for western redcedar and western hemlock. Because of their humid climate, the inland rainforest patches support the establishment of oceanic species that would typically be expected to grow in maritime and coastal environments. Examples for vascular oceanic species include deer fern (''

Blechnum spicant ''Struthiopteris spicant'', syn. ''Blechnum spicant'', is a species of fern in the family Blechnaceae, known by the common names hard-fern or deer fern. It is native to Europe, western Asia, northern Africa, and western North America. Like some ...

'') and red huckleberry ('' Vaccinium parviflorum''). A large number of epiphytes occur, such as hanging moss ('' Antitrichia curtipendula'') settling on trees and various oceanic lichen genera (such as '' Chaenotheca'', '' Chaenothecopsis'', ''

Collema ''Collema'' (jelly lichen) is a genus of lichens in the family Collemataceae. The photobiont is the cyanobacterium genus ''Nostoc''.Dobson, F.S. (2000) Lichens, an illustrated guide to the British and Irish species. 4th edition. Richmond publish ...

'', ''

Fuscopannaria ''Fuscopannaria'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Pannariaceae. It has 55 species. Taxonomy The genus was circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed by Norwegian lichenologist Per Magnus Jørgensen in 1994, with ''Fuscopannaria ...

'', '' Lichinodium'', ''

Lobaria ''Lobaria'' is a genus of foliose lichens, formerly classified in the family Lobariaceae, but now placed in the Peltigeraceae. They are commonly known as "lung wort" or "lungmoss" as their physical shape somewhat resembles a lung, and their ec ...

'', '' Nephroma'', ''

Parmeliella ''Parmeliella'' is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Pannariaceae The Pannariaceae are a family of lichens in the order Peltigerales (suborder Collematineae). Species from this family have a widespread distribution, but are especia ...

'', '' Polychidium'', ''

Pseudocyphellaria ''Pseudocyphellaria'' is a genus of large, leafy lichens that are sometimes referred to as "specklebelly" lichens.Brodo, I. M., S. D. Sharnoff, and S. Sharnoff. 2001. ''Lichens of North America''. Yale University Press: New Haven. The genus has ...

'', ''

Sphaerophorus ''Sphaerophorus'' a genus of lichenized fungi in the order Lecanorales The Lecanorales are an order of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The order contains 26 families, 269 gener ...

'', and ''

Sticta ''Sticta'' is a genus of lichens in the family Peltigeraceae. The genus has a widespread distribution, especially in tropical areas, and includes about 114 species. These lichens have a leafy appearance, and are colored brown or black. ''Sticta'' ...

''). Roughly 40% of the lichen found in the Pacific northwestern rainforest are also found in the inland rainforest. Because of their unique occurrence only in the specific climatic conditions provided by the inland rainforests, oceanic lichen has been used as an indicator for the location of these forest patches.

Fauna

The inland rainforest regions provide habitat for a large number of carnivores, including black bears (''

Ursus americanus Ursus is Latin for bear. It may also refer to: Animals * ''Ursus'' (mammal), a genus of bears People * Ursus of Aosta, 6th-century evangelist * Ursus of Auxerre, 6th-century bishop * Ursus of Solothurn, 3rd-century martyr * Ursus (''praefectus ...

''), grizzly bears (''

Ursus arctos The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

''), grey wolf (''

Canis lupus The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

''), cougar (''

Puma concolor The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere ...

''), lynx (''

Lynx lynx The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is a medium-sized wild cat widely distributed from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. It inhabits temperate and boreal forests up to an elev ...

'') and wolverine (''

Gulo gulo The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscu ...

''). The most characteristic animal for these forests is the mountain caribou (''

Rangifer tarandus Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subsp ...

''), also referred to as woodland caribou, which is currently listed as an endangered species by the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

. The reasons for this endangerment are complex: Mountain caribous relies heavily on oceanic hair

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.old-growth An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

habitat for these lichen species are diminishing. Another problem is the increasing temperatures: due to a shift towards warmer climate conditions, the inland rainforest patches became successional habitat for moose (''

Alces alces The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult male ...

''), deer ('' Odocoileus'') and elk ('' Cervus elaphus''), which led to an increase in predatory species. While the mountain caribou is safe during the winter season due to the altitude that it dwells on, it is highly vulnerable in the summer months, when moose and deer move to higher elevations and attract predators that also prey on the caribous.

Disturbance dynamics

The main large-scale disturbances in the northern Inland rainforest patches in

are infrequent periodic fires and insect outbreaks of the western hemlock looper (

Lambdina fiscellaria ''Lambdina fiscellaria'', the mournful thorn or hemlock looper, is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is found in North America, from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast and from Canada south to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and California. The ...

lugubrosa). On a small scale, these forests are characterized by gap dynamics as results of senescence, heart rot and root rots.

Avalanches An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

, wind and snow loading can have varying effects from small-scale events like tree snapping to disturbances that affect large areas.

Conservation and environmental issues

Conservation

In British Columbian inland rainforests, there are 17.1% of forests, 5% of old forests and 4.5% of old, intact forests strictly protected. That means that the vast majority of the Canadian Inland rainforests are open to large-scale human impacts like clear-cut logging and other anthropogenic disturbances. Conservation projects in the United States are as of now not specifically tilted towards the protection of Inland rainforest patches. However, there are efforts to catalogue these areas by using conservation-area design (CAD) techniques.

Environmental issues

Currently, there are three major threats to the Inland rainforests: 1. logging, 2. mining and hydroelectric development projects and 3. climate change.

Logging

The Inland rainforest patches are highly at risk to be clear-cut. These forests have been heavily logged since decades, but as of now, the rate seems to get higher and higher. Forest ecologist Dominick DellaSala compares the speed at which the Inland rainforest in British Columbia gets logged to logging in the tropical rainforest of Brazil.

Hydroelectric development

In particular in British Columbia, projects to produce so-called ‘clean energy’ enormously threaten the functionality of the Inland rainforests and other riparian ecosystems, especially because they are often permitted without properly reviewing their impacts on the environment.

Climate change

Climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

is likely to impact especially the amount of snow in winter and spring and the general annual temperature, which is believed to increase. Summer droughts and fires would be more probable, as well as a higher number of beetle outbreaks due to warmer winters that would allow more beetles to survive. Plant and animal species alike would be affected, for example would a drier climate favor more drought-adapted species over the moisture-dependent plants in the Inland rainforest patches.DellaSala, Dominick (2011). Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World. Ecology and Conservation, pp. 104-105.

Bibliography

* Alaback, Paul; Krebs, Michael; Rosen, Paul (2000). “Ecological Characteristics and Natural Disturbances in Interior Rainforests of Northern Idaho.”, in: Robert G. D’Eon et alter (Ed.): Ecosystem Management of Forested Landscapes. Directions and Implementation: pp.27-37. * Arsenault, André; Goward, Trevor (2000). “Ecological characteristics of inland rainforests. Ecoforestry. 15 (4): 20-23. * Benson, Shelly; Coxson, Darwyn S. (2002). “Lichen Colonization and Gap Structure in Wet-temperate Rainforests of Northern Interior British Columbia”. The Bryologist. 105 (4): pp. 673-692. * Cox, Sarah (2019). “Canada’s forgotten rainforest.” https://thenarwhal.ca/canadas-forgotten-rainforest/, accessed 11/06/2019. * DellaSala, Dominick (2011). Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World. Ecology and Conservation. * Drinkwater, Bob; Stevenson, Susan K. (2011). British Columbia's Inland Rainforest. Ecology, Conservation, and Management. * Goward, Trevor; Spribille, Toby (2005). "Lichenological evidence for the recognition of inland rain forests in western North America". Journal of Biogeography. 32 (7): 1209-1219. * Radies, David; Coxson, Darwyn; Johnson, Chris; Konwicki, Ksenia (2009). “Predicting canopy macrolichen diversity and abundance within old-growth inland temperate rainforests”. Forest Ecology and Management (2009): pp. 86-97. * Stevenson, Susan K.; Jull, Michael J.; Rogers, Bruce J. (2006). “Abundance and attributes of wildlife trees and coarse woody debris at three silvicultural systems study areas in the Interior Cedar-Hemlock Zone, British Columbia”. Forest Ecology Management 233 (2006): pp. 176-191. * U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?sId=4618, accessed 11/06/2019.

References

External links

{{commons category Ecoregions of North America Temperate rainforests

General description

Setting and extension

Recognition as a rainforest

Precipitation patterns

Flora

Fauna

Disturbance dynamics

Conservation and environmental issues

Conservation

Environmental issues

Logging

Hydroelectric development

Climate change

See also

Bibliography

References

External links