The inland rainforest, also known as the inland temperate rainforest in the classification system of the WWF, is a

temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are rainforests with coniferous or Broad-leaved tree, broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rainforests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate ...

in the

Central Interior of British Columbia Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

. It is part of the Interior Cedar Hemlock (ICH) zone of the biogeoclimatic zones system developed by the BC Ministry of Forests, in the

Rocky Mountain Trench The Rocky Mountain Trench, also known as the Valley of a Thousand Peaks or simply the Trench, is a large valley on the western side of the northern part of North America's Rocky Mountains. The Trench is both visually and cartographically a ...

. One of the richest parts of this wet belt lies east of the city of Prince George and nearly a thousand kilometres (600 miles) east of the coastal rainforests. The oldest and most diverse parts of the forest are typically found on northeasterly aspect wet toe slopes, with Western Red Cedar (''Thuja plicata'') trees over 1,000 years old and undisturbed forest stands much older than that. Some of these toe-slope benches were cleared in the 1960s to develop the

Yellowhead Highway The Yellowhead Highway () is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg west to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western provinces of Britis ...

, with the added result that most of the remainder became easily accessible to industrial logging and recreation, and more recently to research and interpretation. As a consequence there are only a handful of the best sites left undisturbed in 2008. In 1987, a science-based conservation group ''Save-The-Cedar League'' was formed. With the establishment of the new

University of Northern British Columbia The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is a university serving the northern region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The main campus is located in Prince George, with additional campuses located in Prince Rupert, Terrace, ...

(UNBC) in Prince George the 1990s, further research continued to highlight the significance of the ICH zone east of the city. The arrival of a defoliating insect outbreak, the Hemlock Looper, '' Lambdina fiscellaria fiscellaria'', resulted in increased salvage logging of old cedar stands along the Yellowhead Highway. This was reduced by the province's chief forester in the early 2000s as the appreciation of non-timber values of the zone began to be realized and as the Mountain Pine Beetle catastrophe spread across the

Interior Plateau The Interior Plateau comprises a large region of the Interior of British Columbia, and lies between the Cariboo and Monashee Mountains on the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range on the west.''Landforms of Bri ...

to the west and large-scale salvage logging moved in that direction. As the Mountain Pine Beetle wave passes, attention is returning to the mountain wet zones. Some of this came to a head in 2006 with the development of an

old growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

trail by the nearby small community of Dome Creek in the richest site yet found, a place that was also scheduled to be logged. The resulting socio-economic and ecological issues were investigated in a documentary film, ''Block 486''.

Climate change effects

The Interior Cedar Hemlock (ICH) zone is of particular significance with respect to climate change. Climatic warming projections suggest that by mid-century or soon afterwards, this location may be at the southerly extent of the ICH.Northern Hydrometeorology Environmental Science Program, UNBC; Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology - Climate Change The ICH zone will also have spread throughout much of the Prince George area and farther north. The

east of Prince George therefore offers the last best chance to preserve some of the rare 'Tier-1' ICH sites.

References

Contribution of non-vascular plants such as lichens and mosses to ecosystem function along elevational gradients in Western Canada

Dome Creek Ancient Forest website

Documentary film, ''Block 486'' - NarrativeNorth American Moose Conference (2007)
* * {{coord missing, British Columbia Forests of the Rocky Mountains Temperate coniferous forests Temperate rainforests Forests of British Columbia Central Interior of British Columbia Nature conservation in Canada