Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of Inland Northwestern North America

On the windward slopes of the Columbia and Rocky Mountains is a 7 million-hectare disjunct rainforest (see figure 3-1) that arguably includes the largest expanse of inland temperate and boreal rainforests on Earth (but also see Inland Southern Siberia, chapter 9). Most rainforests here are temperate except at the most northerly latitudes, where they grade to boreal rainforest. Although early biogeographers noted the unexpected presence here of numerous species typical of coastal regions (e.g., Daubenmire 1943), only recently have ecologists recognized these forests as a distinct entity: an inland counterpart to coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest (Alaback et al. 2000; Goward and Arsenault 2000; Goward and Spribille 2005). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.