The coastal Douglas-fir zone, its ancient forest now about 99 percent destroyed, once dominated a thin strip of land along the southeast coast of Vancouver Island and on many islands off shore. Edwards, Y. British Columbia. The Mountaineers, p. 117. The Estevan Coastal plain consists of gently undulating or almost flat land that is subdivided into numerous islands and peninsulas by inlets, channels, and Kennedy Lake. The Vancouver Island Mountains are steep and highly dissected, with sharp ridgetops and only very small remnants of the gently sloping uplands that are widespread on other parts of Vancouver Island.
Valleys are deep, glacially eroded troughs, with gentle slopes restricted to valley floors.
In the inland parts of the main drainage basins, ridgetops commonly rise to over 1000 metres, while the peaks attain heights of more than 1300 metres. The Sierra Club of British Columbia has a site with information on the temperate rainforest in Clayoquot Sound and other parts of British Columbia. All rights reserved.