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.

At a glance

About the temperate conifer forests biome

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.

National refinement sub-regions

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's NRCan Plant Hardiness Zone 1981-2010 GeoTIFF published current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions