The Okanogan dry forests span the south-central interior of British Columbia and adjacent north-central Washington (roughly 65% in Canada, 35% in the US). Lying in a rain shadow with hot, dry summers and a cold semi-arid climate, the ecoregion is a complex mosaic of forest, grassland, and shrub-steppe: ponderosa pine, bluebunch wheatgrass, and sagebrush in the valleys, grading to Douglas-fir and lodgepole pine, quaking aspen, and spruce at higher elevations. Often called desert-like but not a true desert, it is considered critically threatened, with only a small fraction protected and pressure from land clearing, urban expansion, and climate-driven wildfire.

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