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Ecoregional Assessments: Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest Coast ecoregion is a narrow, elongated ecoregion located west of the Coast Range and extending from southeastern Oregon in the United States to the northern tip of Vancouver Island in province of British Columbia, Canada. This ecoregion includes almost all of the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island, and encompasses nearly 18 million acres of temperate coniferous forests, montane forests, wetlands, and wild beaches. The ecoregion also encompasses approximately 3.7 million acres of coastal waters, out to 40m in depth.

Ecologically, the Pacific Northwest Coast ecoregion is dominated by coastal and estuarine nearshore habitats and western hemlock – sitka spruce coniferous forests. About 58% of the ecoregion is publicly owned, while over half of the remaining private ownership is managed as industrial timberland. Small towns are scattered through the ecoregion from Oregon’s southern coastline to southern Vancouver Island but the ecoregion’s total population is well below that of the two U.S. state and Canadian province that it straddles. Fueled by tourism and retirees, human development of the ecoregion has increased steadily in recent decades. Additional information on this ecoregion is available from the Washington Biodiversity Council.

 

Image: Keith Lazelle


Assessment Summary:

  • Published August 2006
  • Portfolio of 164 priority conservation areas
  • Conservation portfolio covers 45% of the ecoregion.
  • 397 conservation targets identified





All the data, decision support tools, and site priorities from theassessment are available to inform and support partner conservation and management efforts. Please use these links to download specific components of the ecoregional assessment.

Download the Report
Download the Maps
Download the Appendices
Download the Data

The spatial data available here represents the most basic level of information produced in the assessment. To access more in-depth data and
information, please .