https://books2read.com/Sleuthing-the-Klondike
Canada’s
Rainforest
I am a Canadian and all my mystery, historical, romance, and young
adult novels are set in Canada. Canada is the second largest country in the
world and
has almost twenty-five percent of the world’s temperate rainforest.
A
rainforest is characterized by a dense, damp forest that receives up to 254cm (100inches)
of moisture (rain, snow, drizzle, fog, or mist) each year. The trees are tall
and form an overhead canopy.
There
are two types of rainforest: temperate and tropical. A rainforest close to the
equator is tropical; one between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic in the
northern hemisphere or between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle
in the southern hemisphere is called temperate. Therefore, Canada’s rainforests
are temperate.
New
Zealand, Chile, and Norway also have temperate rainforests. These forests all
have much the same characteristics but may have different plants and animals. While
most of the temperate rainforests in other parts of the world are a mix of
deciduous and coniferous trees, Canada’s rainforests are made up of coniferous
trees such as pine, fir, and spruce.
Some
of the similarities of rainforests are: trees that range from new saplings to
tall, centuries-old growth; large logs lying on the forest floor; an abundance
of bright green moss, ferns, and other vegetation hiding the forest floor;
plants growing on other plants; and many layers of canopy overhead. Some of the
dead logs will have seedlings to tall trees growing on them and are sometimes called
a host or nurse log.
Canada’s
rainforest ranges along the west coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
Their abundant rainfall comes from being close to the Pacific Ocean and coastal
mountains. They are part of the Pacific Temperate Rainforest ecoregion which
runs from Alaska to Northern California and is the world’s largest temperate
rainforest.
Canada
also has the world’s only temperate inland forest called the Interior Wet Belt.
It runs from Fort George southeast to Revelstoke and further south to the
United States border and owes its rain to weather systems that begin in the
Pacific Ocean and flow west to rise over the Columbia Mountains.
The
Great Bear Rainforest covers 32,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq miles.) along
the central and northern coast of British Columbia. It is one of the largest
remaining areas of unspoiled temperate rainforest in the world. Besides being
home to grizzly bears, wolves, salmon, bald eagles and cougars, it is also home
to the Kermode or Spirit Bear, which is a species of black bear. It is called
the Spirit Bear because of its white-coloured coat caused by inheriting the
genes of both parents. One in ten black bear cubs is born with this coat.
Rainforests
cover less than ten percent of the world’s land surface but contribute to
one-third of the world’s oxygen production.
