page_title: Temperate rainforest
section_title: Pacific temperate rain forests
hierarchical_section_title: Temperate rainforest / Temperate rain forest regions by continent / North America / Pacific temperate rain forests
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of sign at Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park
context_page_description: Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rainfall.
  Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American Pacific Northwest as well as the Appalachian temperate rainforest of the Eastern U.S. Sun Belt; the Valdivian temperate rain forests of southwestern South America; the rain forests of New Zealand, Tasmania and southeastern Australia; northwest Europe; southern Japan; the Black Sea-Caspian Sea region from the southeasternmost coastal zone of the Bulgarian coast, through Turkey, to Georgia, and northern Iran.
  The moist conditions of temperate rain forests generally support an understory of mosses, ferns and some shrubs. Temperate rain forests can be temperate coniferous forests or temperate broadleaf and mixed forests.
context_section_description: A portion of the temperate rain forest region of North America, the largest area of temperate zone rain forests on the planet, is the Pacific temperate rain forests ecoregion, which occur on west-facing coastal mountains along the Pacific coast of North America, from Kodiak Island in Alaska to northern California, and are part of the Nearctic realm.  In the different system established by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, this same general region is classed as the Pacific Maritime Ecozone by Environment Canada and as the Marine West Coast Forest and Northwestern Forested Mountains Level II ecoregions by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  In terms of the floristic province system used by botany, the bulk of the region is the Rocky Mountain Floristic Region but a small southern portion is part of the California Floristic Province.
  Sub-ecoregions of the Pacific temperate rain forest ecoregion as defined by the WWF include the Northern Pacific coastal forests, Haida Gwaii ecoregion, Vancouver Island ecoregion, British Columbia mainland coastal forests, Central Pacific coastal forests, Cascades forests, Klamath-Siskiyou coastal forests, and Northern California coastal forests ecoregions. They vary in their species composition, but are all predominantly coniferous, sometimes with an understory of broadleaved trees and shrubs. Most of the precipitation occurs in winter, similar to Mediterranean climates, but in summer, fog moisture is extracted by the trees and produces a fog drip keeping the forest moist. The Northern California coastal forests are home to the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), the world's tallest tree. In the other ecoregions, Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii), Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis), Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) are the most important tree species. A common feature of Pacific temperate rain forests of North America is the Nurse log, a fallen tree which as it decays, provides ecological facilitation to seedlings.  Trees such as the Coast Douglas-fir, Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar, Pacific Yew, and Vine Maple are more closely related to coniferous and deciduous trees in the temperate forests of East Asia.
  Some of the largest expanses of old growth are found in Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, Tongass National Forest, Mount St. Helens National Monument, Redwood National Park, and throughout British Columbia (including British Columbia's Coastal Mountain Ranges), with the coastal Great Bear Rainforest containing the largest expanses of old growth temperate rainforest found in the world.
  British Columbia's Rocky Mountains, Cariboo Mountains, Rocky Mountain Trench (east of Prince George) and the Columbia Mountains of Southeastern British Columbia (west of the Canadian Rocky Mountains that extend into parts of Idaho and Northwestern Montana in the US), which include the Selkirk Mountains, Monashee Mountains, and the Purcell Mountains, have the largest stretch of interior temperate coniferous rain forests. These inland rainforests have more continental climate with a large proportion of the precipitation falling as snow. Being closer to the Rocky Mountains, there is more of a diverse mammalian fauna. Some of the best interior rain forests are found in Mount Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park (Canada) in the Columbia Mountains.
caption: Temperate rain forest in Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, located in Vancouver island
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