PLANTS & ANIMALS

Posted on September 4, 2017 by admin

PLANT COMMUNITIES
The nature of any plant community found in a given area is the product of the specific environmental conditions found there. The mosaic of diverse climatic conditions found in the West Kootenay produced an equally diverse range of plant communities. The region is a botanist’s dream.
Ecologists classify plant communities as belonging to specific “biogeoclimatic zones”, a term referring to the combination of climate, soil type and plant species that interact to produce a characteristic plant community. Four biogeoclimatic zones are represented in the West Kootenay.

1. Interior Western Hemlock Zone
Frequently called the Interior Wet Belt, this plant community thrives at the lower elevation of the northern two-thirds of the region, where the high peaks have squeezed abundant moisture from the clouds. Here, the heavy winter snowfalls and warm summers have produced impressive mature forests. Western hemlock, western red cedar, grand fir, Douglas-fir, western white pine and western yew are common, while on the forest floor, ferns, devil’s club and moss predominate. Flowers include queen’s cup, trillium, wild ginger, spotted coral root and calypso orchid, to name but a few.
In the drier southern parts of the region, we find a transitional forest of the Interior Western Hemlock zone. There is a tremendous variety of tree species in this zone, with one, the western larch, being characteristic. An unusual feature of this conifer is displayed each fall when its needles turn golden and are shed.

2. Interior Douglas-For Zone
This forest community, found in drier areas, is represented at lower elevations in the southwest Selkirks. Here, mature forests are relatively open, allowing for more abundant growth of shrubs and small trees. Characteristic trees include Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine and trembling aspen. Common shrubs are False Box, kinnikinnick, soopolallie and Oregon Grape.
In certain areas, mostly dry, sunny slopes, the Interior Douglas-fir zone resembles the more arid Ponderosa Pine-Bunchgrass zone. Characterized by open, grassy hillsides dotted with ponderosa pines, this distinctive plant community is best represented around Deer Park, north of Castlegar.
An excellent example of the Interior Douglas-Fir community at its wettest is Champion Lakes Provincial Park, located above Trail. Here, the zone mingles with the Interior Western Hemlock forest to produce a tremendously diverse transitional community, with twelve species of conifers occurring at the same elevations.

3. Engelman Spruce-Subalpine Fir Zone
This plant community generally prevails everywhere in the region at elevations of between 1524m and 2286m (5000 to 7500 ft). Only plants that can tolerate long winters and short summer growing seasons survive here. The Engelman spruce and the subalpine fir are shaped for survival; their conical form is ideal for preventing heavy buildups of potentially dangerous snow.
Mature stands of this forest are generally well-spaced, allowing for the luxuriant growth of low shrubs and flowers. At high elevations near timberline, the forest openings in summer are vibrant flower gardens. Common shrubs are blue and lack mountain huckleberries, white rhododendrons, mountain ash and twinberry. Flowers include red and yellow monkeyflowers, arnica, Indian paintbrush, mountain valerian and monkshood.

4. Alpine Tundra Zone
The land above the timberline is designated alpine tundra, but timberline is not a definitive term. High above the forested slopes, trees such as subalpine fir, whitebark pine, and Lyall’s larch survive; in sheltered pockets, though dwarfed, they retain their tree shapes, whereas on more exposed sites they become Krummholz – dense, low-lying forms that hug the earth like blankets.
To appreciate the hardships of life in the alpine zone, one needs only look at the twisted and contorted forms of these tangled old dwarfs, surviving here against all odds. They symbolize life in the alpine: fragile, yet tenacious. And when you visit this delicate area, be especially considerate, for damage done here may take hundreds of years to repair.
In summer, the meadows come alive with colour and scent. The heavy snows of winter, which have locked up life for ten months, melt to provide ample moisture, and the shrubs and flowers, free from a shading forest canopy, are drenched with intense sunlight. Life explodes.
Time is the key. Within the few weeks of an alpine summer, a plant must flower, reproduce and store food for the future. Most species, like the western anemone, are geared for this race. Using stored food energy from its tuberous rootstock, it pushes its bloom through the still-melting snow. For frost and moisture protection, the anemone has an insulating covering of fine hairs, and its bloom, in the shape of a parabolic disc, collects the sun’s rays to warm its developing ovaries.
Insects are as vital to the survival of plants as they are. In their rush to live a year in a month, both alpine flowers and the insects that feed upon them conduct an intense struggle for survival, the insects competing with one another for plant food sources, and the plants, with the lure of colour and scent, competing for pollinating insects. The vivid colours, heady fragrances and steady humming sounds of an alpine meadow are testimony to this dramatic urgency.
The alpine community in the West Kootenay is blessed with an abundance of plant species. Many field guides are available to help you identify and enjoy the flora here, and I recommend carrying one when you visit the sensational floral displays found in summer above the timber line.

THE WORLD’S ONLY INLAND TEMPERATE RAINFOREST

The Kootenays are home to the world’s only inland temperate rainforest, and its uniqueness attracts everyone from tree huggers to tree cutters.

A Kootenay old-growth forest has an unmistakable vibe. It feels moist, even in the summer, with soft, spongy moss creeping over the rocks and curtains of lichen dangling from nearly every bough. Massive cedar and hemlock trees — hundreds if not thousands of years old — stand sentry over the lush under storey, where devil’s club grows nine feet tall and grizzly bear, mountain caribou, cougar, wolf, and lynx still roam.

Scientists know this landscape as an inland temperate rainforest, and the Kootenays have the only one in the world. As the Valhalla Wilderness Society, an organization that’s been working to protect this rare ecosystem for decades, explains it, a rainforest is loosely defined as a forest that stays wet all year. In the Earth’s temperate zone — the area between the tropics and the polar regions — that typically only happens on the coast, like in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest or on Vancouver Island. But in the Kootenays, we have a temperate rainforest growing 400 to 600 kilometres (250 to 375 miles) from the ocean, which is why it is labelled “inland.” “Snow forest might be a better name for it,” says Eddie Petryshen, a conservation specialist at Wildsight in Kimberley, British Columbia. “Most of the moisture comes from snow, not rain.”

The North American Inland Temperate Rainforest, as it’s known, used to cover 40 million acres, forming a broad arc that blanketed the entire Kootenay region before dipping south into parts of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Today, due to logging and development, British Columbia’s portion exists in much smaller fragments — some of which are mere remnants, especially in the southern Selkirk and Purcell Mountains, like the 2.6-kilometre (1.6-mile) out-and-back Old Growth Recreation Trail at Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park, near Nelson, British Columbia. A 2021 study titled Red-Listed Ecosystem Status of Interior Wetbelt and Inland Temperate Rainforest of British Columbia, Canada, published in Land journal, classified this rainforest as “critically endangered” and stated that ecosystem collapse is imminent in nine to 18 years if logging rates continue at current levels.

In places like Revelstoke, British Columbia, where there are still large tracts of undisturbed inland temperate rainforest, like the Argonaut and Bigmouth Valleys, residents are rallying for the clear-cutting to stop before it’s too late. “We have something really, really special here,” says Sarah Newton, a Revelstoke resident and spokesperson for Old Growth Revylution, an environmental conservation organization. “We’re the only inland temperate rainforest left in the world that’s still somewhat intact.” By late summer 2021, old-growth logging protestors in Revelstoke had swelled to 200 strong and established a full-time blockade on a logging road 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of town to protect the rainforest and beyond. Last October, forest defenders were buoyed when the provincial government announced its intention to defer logging in 2.6 million hectares of at-risk old-growth pending discussions with local Indigenous Peoples. Thirteen of the 14 cutblocks that Old Growth Revylution hoped to protect were included in that deferral. As for that last cutblock, which sits at the confluence of Argonaut and Bigmouth Creeks, Newton and her colleagues are still out there blockading. “We’re not going to budge,” she says. “It’s gotten that dire — every cutblock counts.”

June 28, 2022 KOOTENAY MOUNTAIN CULTURE Magazine
By Jayme Moye, Photographs by Steve Ogle
Jayme Moye is an award-winning writer who specializes in stories about travel, mountain sports and culture, and pushing the limits of human potential. Her freelance work regularly appears in Outside, Canadian Geographic, National Geographic, and Condé Nast Traveler, among others. She is a Senior Writer with Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine

About admin

I would like to think of myself as a full time traveler. I have been retired since 2006 and in that time have traveled every winter for four to seven months. The months that I am "home", are often also spent on the road, hiking or kayaking. I hope to present a website that describes my travel along with my hiking and sea kayaking experiences.

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