Glacier National Park - British Columbia
Glacier National Park of Canada protects, for all time, a portion of the Columbia Mountains Natural Region, in the interior wet belt of British Columbia. The steep, rugged mountains, warm, moist climate and wide variety of plant and animal life are typical of this natural region. The park protects unique stands of old-growth cedar and hemlock and critical habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife species such as the mountain caribou, mountain goat and grizzly bear. The Rogers Pass National Historic Site is located in Glacier National Park. Rogers Pass was so designated for its importance in the construction and development of the country's first major national transportation route. Glacier National Park contains three distinct life zones created by elevation. The three life zones can be thought of as "Rainforest, Snowforest and No Forest". The higher the elevation, the more often precipitation occurs as snow rather than rain. Deep, lingering snow and colder temperatures at high elevations shorten the growing season, until an elevation is reached beyond which no trees can grow. At the lowest elevations in the park, the region's high annual precipitation falls mostly as rain. This is the interior rainforest: dense vegetation and large trees remind many visitors of the coastal Pacific Northwest. Western red cedar, western hemlock, and western white pine tower over shrubs such as devil's club, Pacific yew, and mountain box. A rich variety of ferns and mosses carpets the forest floor.
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