British Columbia coastal conifer forests
British Columbia coastal conifer forests
The British Columbia Coastal Conifer Forests ecoregion spans the mainland Coast Mountains of British Columbia, just inland of the outer Pacific coast, across the Pacific and Kitimat Ranges to elevations near 4,000 meters. Conifers dominate, especially Douglas-fir and western hemlock communities alongside western red cedar, amabilis fir, and Alaskan yellow cedar in subalpine zones. The wet maritime climate brings annual precipitation from about 1,500 mm at lower elevations to 3,400 mm higher up, falling mostly in winter, with drier summers. Lowland forests are notably rich in epiphytes, fungi, amphibians, and invertebrates, and the Great Bear Rainforest here holds ancient stands representing a quarter of the world's coastal temperate rainforest.
RESOLVE 349
Nearctic
42,676 sq mi
Temperate Conifer Forests
Landscape type
Temperate Conifer Forests
Plant region
Nearctic
Region footprint
42,676 sq mi
Habitat pressure
Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)
Source & care
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Use this as the broad planting pattern for the region: Temperate forests dominated by evergreen conifers, from coastal rainforests to montane pine and fir stands. Adapted to cool, moist or seasonally dry climates, they include some of the tallest and longest-lived trees on the planet. For garden decisions, pair that context with the plant list below, then narrow by your site's light, water, soil, and mature-size constraints.
Range & origins
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 52.5°N, 126.5°W.
Region through time
Modern footprint
RESOLVE 2017 maps 42,676 sq mi
This boundary is a modern ecological footprint for British Columbia coastal conifer forests, not a permanent line on the planet. It is useful for today's plant and wildlife context because it follows recurring vegetation, climate, landform, and disturbance patterns.
Why here
temperate conifer forests conditions
The region sits in the Nearctic realm and is classed as temperate conifer forests. Elevation, moisture, fire, soils, coasts, and human land use can all make the real landscape more varied than a single map color suggests.
Change pressure
Nature Could Reach Half Protected
Plotwright shows this as the current RESOLVE footprint. Over decades to centuries, warming, disturbance, invasive species, land use, and restoration can move the living edge of a region even when the reference map stays fixed.
Planting collections
Finished planting recipes where every member can handle this region's climate range. The fit badge uses the collection's most sensitive plant, so a resilient collection is a safer starting point than any single standout.
Climate-resilient · 2 plantas
Bright shade foundation
A part-shade planting with shrub structure and low foliage contrast.
Climate-resilient · 8 plantas
Climate-resilient natives for warming zones (eastern NA)
A pollinator-supporting palette of eastern North American natives with broad hardiness ranges and wide native distributions. Built for gardeners who want a planting that can handle warming zones without giving up wildlife value.
Climate-resilient · 3 plantas
Kitchen patio planters
A compact edible collection for containers, patios, and near-door harvesting.
Climate-resilient · 6 plantas
Mediterranean drought-tolerant edible
A low-water edible palette of culinary herbs + a hardy grape for hot dry sunny sites. Mediterranean-origin plants thrive on neglect; their primary failure mode is overwatering, not underwatering.
Climate-resilient · 9 plantas
Native pollinator border (eastern US)
A continuous-bloom native pollinator strip for eastern North America. Covers spring through frost with host + nectar plants spanning monarchs, native bees, hummingbirds, and specialist Lepidoptera. Little bluestem provides the matrix grass + Hesperiidae host.
Climate-resilient · 4 plantas
Sunny pollinator border
A durable sunny border with summer bloom, seedheads, and upright winter texture.
Similar planting regions
Browse other regions with a similar hot, dry-summer rhythm. Their plant lists can suggest species and combinations worth comparing.
RESOLVE 345 - Nearctic
Alberta-British Columbia foothills forests
The Alberta-British Columbia foothills forests form a transitional temperate conifer ecoregion straddling the boundary between the Rocky Mountains to the west and the Mid-Canada boreal plains to the east, lying mostly in Alberta with a portion in British Columbia. Mixed forests of lodgepole pine, quaking aspen, jack pine, and white spruce dominate, with balsam poplar, paper birch, and balsam fir also common, while wetter sites support black spruce and tamarack. The climate is subhumid and cold temperate, with short summers averaging 13-15C, cold winters from -17.5 to -10C, and annual precipitation of roughly 400-600 mm. Heavily altered by agriculture, logging, and oil and gas development, only about 1% of the ecoregion holds protected status.
Temperate Conifer Forests
Zones 6b-7b
+5.6°F by 2070
46,764 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 346 - Nearctic
Arizona Mountains forests
The Arizona Mountains forests — the sky-island and Mogollon Rim forest belt of central and eastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and a thin strip in adjacent Mexico. Elevation banding from desert grassland and pinyon-juniper through ponderosa pine + Gambel oak, Douglas fir + aspen + white fir at higher elevations, and isolated subalpine spruce-fir on the highest peaks (Humphreys Peak, Mt. Baldy). The 'Madrean sky islands' on the southern edge connect biotic elements of the Sierra Madre Occidental with the Southwest US.
Temperate Conifer Forests
Zones 8a-11b
+3.7°F by 2070
42,830 sq mi
Editorial profile
NNH tier 4
RESOLVE 347 - Nearctic
Atlantic coastal pine barrens
The Atlantic coastal pine barrens — the fire-dependent pitch pine + scrub oak ecosystem of the New Jersey Pinelands, Long Island Pine Barrens, Cape Cod, and smaller patches across coastal Massachusetts and adjacent Rhode Island / Connecticut / Delaware. Sandy, acidic, nutrient-poor soils plus historic frequent fire produced the open canopy and rich heath / sedge understory. The NJ Pinelands National Reserve protects the largest remnant.
Temperate Conifer Forests
Zones 8b-11a
+5.7°F by 2070
5,517 sq mi
Editorial profile
NNH tier 3
RESOLVE 348 - Nearctic
Blue Mountains forests
The Blue Mountains forests cover the elevated interior of northeastern Oregon and adjacent southeastern Washington — a Pacific-Northwest-but-not-coastal landscape of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, grand fir, and western larch on the uplands, with sagebrush-steppe filling the lower valleys. Drier and more continental than the western Cascades; the region's plant palette is closer to the Northern Rockies' inland-PNW look than to the rainforest west of the crest.
Temperate Conifer Forests
Zones 8b-9b
+4.4°F by 2070
27,315 sq mi
Editorial profile
NNH tier 3
RESOLVE 350 - Nearctic
Central British Columbia Mountain forests
The Central British Columbia Mountain forests stretch northwest-to-southeast across north-central British Columbia, east of the Coast Mountains, spanning ranges such as the Omineca, Skeena, Stikine, and Hart at elevations from 700 to 2,400 metres. Low slopes carry western red cedar, western hemlock, lodgepole pine, aspen, and spruce, grading into subalpine Engelmann spruce and fir and, on the highest ground, alpine tundra. The climate is subarctic, with a mean annual temperature near 2°C, summers around 12°C, and cold winters. The grizzly bear is the flagship species, but only about 6% of the ecoregion is protected, leaving it exposed to intensive logging.
Temperate Conifer Forests
Zones 7a-11a
+4.2°F by 2070
53,825 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 351 - Nearctic
Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests
The Central Pacific Northwest coastal forest belt runs from northern California through coastal Oregon, Washington, and into the British Columbia panhandle — the temperate-rainforest band west of the Coast Range and Cascade crest. Sitka spruce and western hemlock dominate the wettest coastal strip; Douglas fir, western red cedar, and bigleaf maple fill the inland edge. Carries some of the highest above-ground biomass of any temperate forest in the world.
Temperate Conifer Forests
Zones 7b-11b
+3.2°F by 2070
29,879 sq mi
Editorial profile
NNH tier 2
National refinement sub-regions
Within this RESOLVE ecoregion, national agencies recognise finer-grained sub-regions. Plotwright assigns each sub-region polygon to its containing RESOLVE polygon by centroid.
EPA Level III (US-only) - 1 sub-region
77 · North Cascades
Source: USGS / EPA via Omernik (1987).
Canadian NEF Ecoprovinces - 1 ecoprovince
13.2 · Southern Coastal Mountains
Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, NEF v2.2 (Open Government Licence - Canada).
Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or regional planting notes that use this Plotwright page. To cite the underlying ecoregion framework or a specific editorial profile, use the source cards below.
Plotwright. (n.d.). British Columbia coastal conifer forests (British Columbia coastal conifer forests). Retrieved 2026, June 14, from https://plotwright.garden/regions/resolve-349
Sources for this region
This page cites Plotwright first for the compiled view, then lists the upstream framework, climate, and editorial source pages so readers can cite the original material directly.
RESOLVE 2017 Terrestrial Ecoregions (Dinerstein et al.)
Primary ecoregion framework
Backs 4 fields
RESOLVE id
Biome + realm
Area
NNH tier
Canada Plant Hardiness
Published hardiness-zone authority
Backs 1 field
NRCan zone range