Pacific temperate rainforests

The Pacific temperate rain forests are characterized by a high amount of rainfall, in some areas more than 300 cm (10 ft) per year and moderate temperatures in both the summer and winter months (10–24 °C or 50–75 °F).

These rainforests occur in a number of ecoregions, which vary in their species composition, but are predominantly of conifers, sometimes with an understory of broadleaf trees, ferns and shrubs.

The forests in the north contain predominantly Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), while those in the coastal forests are home to both species mentioned, as well as coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western redcedar (Thuja plicata) and shore pine (Pinus contorta).

Hardwood trees such as the bigleaf maple and the alder are also common, especially at lower elevations and along stream banks, and are vital to the ecosystem, in part because of their nitrogen fixing.

When flowering plants emerged (in the following Cretaceous period), they quickly prevailed, causing most conifers to become extinct, and those that survived to adapt to harsh conditions.

The Pacific temperate rainforests now remains the only region on Earth of noteworthy size and significance where, due to unique climatic conditions, the conifers flourish as they did before being displaced by flowering plants.

[1] In sheer mass of living and decaying material - trees, mosses, shrubs, and soil - these forests are more massive than any other ecosystem on the planet.

The first survey to systematically explore the forest canopy in the Carmanah Valley of Vancouver Island yielded 15,000 new species, a third of all invertebrates known to exist in all of Canada.

Other wildlife species of note include the bald eagle, marbled murrelet, wolf, mountain lion and sitka deer.

Pacific temperate rainforests have been subject to ongoing large-scale industrial logging since the end of World War II, cutting over half of their total area.