Alberta–British Columbia foothills forests


The Alberta–British Columbia foothills forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of Canada. This ecoregion borders Canada's taiga and contains a mix of subarctic forest and temperate forest species as a result. This makes the region an ecotone region, or a region that acts as a buffer between two other biomes.

Setting

This ecoregion covers two separate areas: the rolling foothills of the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and further west a smaller area of the hills and valleys of central British Columbia. The Clear Hills in the north of the region are steeper.
Average annual temperature vary from -0.5°C to 2°C, with the summer temperatures around 14°C dropping in winter to -17.5°C in the north and -10°C in the south.

Flora

The forests are a mixture dominated by lodgepole pine, jack pine, trembling aspen, black spruce, and white spruce. Other trees include balsam poplar, paper birch and balsam fir.

Fauna

These foothills are home to the largest populations of moose in North America. Other mammals include snowshoe hare, beaver, muskrat, wolf and two subspecies of black bear the cinnamon bear of the Rocky Mountains and the eastern black bear of the Canadian Taiga.
Birds of the area include sandhill cranes, ruffed grouse, spruce grouse and large numbers of waterbirds and New World warblers.

Threats and preservation

These forests have been extensively altered by human activity, especially clearance for planting.