The Queen Charlotte Islands conifer forests cover the Haida Gwaii archipelago, roughly 150 islands lying about 90 km off the north coast of mainland British Columbia, Canada. Steep slopes rise in the west and gentle lowlands stretch east, cloaked in coastal temperate rainforest of western red cedar, Alaska yellow cedar, shore pine, and Sitka spruce, with growth often stunted on windswept western shores. The maritime climate is cool and very wet, averaging about 7.5°C with rainfall ranging from roughly 800 mm in the east to 4,000 mm on western slopes. Long isolation has produced notable endemism in plants and animals, and the islands host large breeding seabird colonies, making old-growth conservation a priority.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 53.4°N, 132.2°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
NRCan zone range (now)
0a-7b
NRCan
What seed packets and nursery tags reference. Coldest-day survival semantics.
Plotwright projection (2041–2070)
10b-11a
Plotwright
Where CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.1°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Temperate Conifer Forests
Realm
Nearctic
Approximate area
3,937 sq mi
Conservation tier
Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 1)
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
Within this RESOLVE ecoregion, national agencies recognise finer-grained sub-regions. Plotwright assigns each sub-region polygon to its containing RESOLVE polygon by centroid.
Canadian NEF Ecoprovinces — 1 ecoprovince
13.2 · Southern Coastal Mountains
Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, NEF v2.2 (Open Government Licence — Canada).
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.
Climate-resilient picks · 79
These plants fit this ecoregion today AND remain in range under the mid-century SSP3-7.0 projection. Lead with these for a planting that holds up as the climate shifts.
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other temperate conifer forests ecoregions to explore: