The Boreal Cordillera Ecozone, as defined by the

Commission for Environmental Cooperation The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC; ; ) is an intergovernmental organization established by Canada, Mexico, and the United States to implement the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the environmental si ...

(CEC), is a Canadian terrestrial ecozone occupying most of the northern third of

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

and southern half of

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

. Within it is found

Kluane National Park and Reserve Kluane National Park and Reserve (; ) are two protected areas in the southwest corner of the Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Yukon. The National Park Reserve was set aside in 1972 to become a national park, pending settlement o ...

, and a small portion of the southern range of Nahanni National Park Reserve. Most of the area's population is based in the city of

Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...

, and it contains most of Yukon's population. The portion in British Columbia is barely populated. The main economic activity is

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

, particularly of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

, which discovery in the region led to the Klondike Gold Rush. In addition to the area's rich mineral deposits, active industries exist in

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

Geography

This

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

ous ecozone is between the Montane Cordillera Ecozone to the south-east and the Taiga Cordillera Ecozone to the north. The three zones contain the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies () or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, w ...

. To the east are the Taiga Plains, and to the west is

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, though the ecozone is also adjacent to narrow strips of the Pacific Maritime. It is characterized by tall peaks and extensive plateau. The northern plateaux within the ecozone have a fairly gentle terrain, broken by numerous watercourses running through them, and are separated by wide

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

s and their

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of a ...

s. Just over 15% of the Boreal Cordillera, or roughly 73,320 km² consists of

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s, of which 92% is treed wetland. It covers a total area of 471,400 km², with 241,240 km² of

forest cover Forest cover is the amount of trees that covers a particular area of land. It may be measured as relative (in percent) or absolute (in square kilometres/ square miles). Nearly a third of the world's land surface is covered with forest, with clos ...

, of which 78.6% is

softwood Scots pine, a typical and well-known softwood Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main differences between hardwoods and softwoods is that the sof ...

, 17.8% is mixedwood, and 3.6 is

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

. The spruce beetle has been proliferating since the 1990s, and has destroyed vast areas of the spruce forest. The ecozone contains four forest regions - tundra, sub-alpine, coast, and boreal. There is also concern that the softwood harvest in southeastern Yukon does not have adequate natural regeneration.

Ecoprovinces

This ecozone can be further subdivided into four ecoprovinces: * Northern Boreal Cordillera * Southern Boreal Cordillera * Western Boreal Cordillera * Wrangel Mountains

Climate

The interior intermontane plateau receive about 400 mm of annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

, much less than the 1000 to 1500 mm levels in the eastern mountains, and the even higher levels in the western mountains.

Snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

fall accounts for 35 to 60% of all precipitation. Winters are long and cold, with January mean temperatures between -15 °C and -27 °C. Summers are warm but short, with July mean temperatures between 12 °C and 15 °C. Alpine weather is more typical beyond the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

at elevations above 1000 m, where frost can develop year-round. Average temperatures here remain below freezing for most of the year, and snowfall accounts for at least 70% of precipitation. Permafrost is typical in these regions, allowing for the growth of only

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es and

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

s. Sudden violent storms may occur in the area during the summer, usually due to moist air masses arriving from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. Usually, however, the Pacific moderates the climate in this ecozone.

Conservation

A number of

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

s have been established to protect representative and/or significant portions of this ecozone. These include Asi Keyi Territorial Park,

Mount Edziza Provincial Park Mount Edziza Provincial Park is a provincial park in Cassiar Land District of northern British Columbia, Canada. It was established on 27 July 1972 to showcase the Mount Edziza volcanic complex and the surrounding Tahltan Highland. Geography The ...

, Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park, and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park.

References

{{Reflist Ecozones and ecoregions of British Columbia Geography of Yukon