The Copper Plateau taiga is a flat, lake-strewn boreal plateau in interior Alaska, sitting roughly 420-900 m above sea level and ringed by high mountains. Shallow permafrost and poor drainage give it a wet, boggy landscape of black spruce, dwarf birch, heath shrubs, and sedges, with white spruce, cottonwood, and quaking aspen on better-drained sites along river corridors. The climate is sharply continental, with winter daily minimums near -27 C, summer maximums around 21 C, and annual precipitation of about 250-460 mm. Once a large lake during the Pleistocene, its wetlands now host breeding trumpeter swans, king and sockeye salmon runs, and the migrating Nelchina caribou herd. About 30% lies in protected areas, much of it within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

At a glance

About the boreal forests/taiga biome

The vast northern forest belt of spruce, fir, pine, and larch, defined by long, severe winters and short growing seasons. Often underlain by permafrost and wetlands, the taiga forms one of the world’s largest terrestrial carbon stores.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer 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