The Fraser Lowland is a

landform A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement ...

and

physiographic region Physiographic regions are a means of defining Earth's landforms into independently distinct, mutually exclusive areas, independent of political boundaries. It is based upon the classic three-tiered approach by Nevin M. Fenneman in 1916, that separ ...

in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, shared between the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

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 the U.S. state of Washington. The region includes much of the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, and the

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

s of Washington's Whatcom County. As a physiographic region, the Fraser Lowland is part of the Georgia Depression, which in turn is part of the Coastal Trough.''Landforms of British Columbia: A Physiographic Outline'', by S. Holland 1964 (revised 1976), British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
The eponymous

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

in the Lowland's north and the lower basins of its

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

(mainly the Pitt River,

Coquitlam River The Coquitlam River (Help:IPA/English, /koʊˈkwɪtləm/ or Help:IPA/English, /kəˈkwɪtləm/) is a tributary of the Fraser River in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia. The river's name comes from the wo ...

and Vedder/ Chilliwack Rivers), as well as the entire catchment of the oppositely flowing Sumas River, are the Lowland's primary river system. However, the region also includes the lower Nooksack River basin ("Nooksack Lowland") south of the Canada–US border, which belongs to a completely separate river system arising from the southeast in the namesaked valleys around the North Cascades' Mount Shuksan, Baker and Twin Sisters. Overall, the Fraser Lowland encompasses all the fertile low-lying fluvial plains between and around the Fraser and Nooksack rivers,Fraser Lowland Map
, University of the Fraser Valley including the Sumas Prairie, the Burrard Peninsula, and sometimes also the North Shore lowlands around the Burrard Inlet. The American

pene-exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

of Point Roberts lies to the region's west, at the southern end of the Tsawwassen peninsula.

Geography

The Fraser Lowland is roughly triangular and about in total area. The Strait of Georgia coastline between Burrard Inlet in the north and Bellingham Bay in the south marks its western/southwestern boundary, and the region extends east through the generally flat terrain between the Coast Mountains to the north and the

Vedder Mountain The Vedder Mountain is a branch of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest, located at the southeastern edge of the Fraser Lowland in British Columbia, Canada, between the village of Yarrow, British Columbia, Yarrow and the village of Cultus Lak ...

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

to the southeast, all the way to the easternmost end of the Fraser Valley near Hope, where the Coquihalla River drains into the Fraser River at the latter's westward bends out of the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

. The Canadian Sumas and the Chilliwack Mountain stand out on the southbank of the Fraser River, in the middle of the eastern Fraser Lowland, demarcating the Fraser Valley into its "Upper" and "Lower" parts. The rich soil, plentiful

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 ...

, and mild marine climate make the entire region a prime agricultural land. Much has been cultivated for

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

. The Fraser Lowland is politically divided by the Canada–United States border into two parts. Both the area and population are much larger on the Canadian side (Fraser Valley and Sumas Prairie) with about 2.4 million residents.Imagining the Future of Cross Border Environmental Resource Management within the Fraser Lowland
, University of the Fraser Valley The main population center is

Greater Vancouver Greater Vancouver, also known as Metro Vancouver, is the metropolitan area with its major urban centre being the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The term ''Greater Vancouver'' describes an area that is roughly coterminous with the r ...

at the northwestern end of the Fraser Lowland. Other population centers on the Canadian side include Abbotsford and Chilliwack, both part of the Fraser Valley Regional District. The population on the American side of the Lowland (the Nooksack Lowland and all the upper Sumas River basin south of Sumas) is about 200,000. It is dominated by the coastal city of Bellingham at the Lowland's southernmost tip.

References

{{Reflist Geography of the Pacific Northwest Geography of British Columbia Geography of Washington (state) Lower Mainland

Geography

See also

References