thumb|Temperate rain forests, such as this in [[British Columbia|British Columbia's Vancouver Island, often grow right up to the shoreline.]]

The Pacific temperate rainforests of western North America is one of the largest temperate rain forest regions on the planet. The Pacific temperate rainforests lie along the western side of the Pacific Coast Ranges along the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America from the Prince William Sound in Alaska through the British Columbia Coast to Northern California, and are part of the Nearctic realm. The Pacific temperate rain forests are characterized by a high amount of rainfall, in some areas more than per year and moderate temperatures in both the summer and winter months ().

This ecoregion is a subregion of the Cascadia bioregion.

These rainforests occur in a number of ecoregions, which vary in their species composition, but are predominantly of conifers, sometimes with an understory of broadleaf trees, ferns and shrubs. In the WWF's system, the ecoregions of the Pacific temperate rainforests are the Northern Pacific coastal forests, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia mainland coastal forests, Central Pacific coastal forests, Central and Southern Cascades forests, Klamath-Siskiyou forests, and Northern California coastal forests ecoregions.

Flora

The forests in the north contain predominantly Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), while those in the coastal forests are home to both species mentioned, as well as coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western redcedar (Thuja plicata) and shore pine (Pinus contorta). Notably, many of the world's largest and tallest tree species are found in this ecoregion. The northern Pacific temperate rain forests are relatively young, emerging in the past few thousand years following the retreat of the ice sheets of the last ice age. One of the reasons behind this is the rarity of fire.

  • Beyond the northern end of Vancouver Island, is the "perhumid rain forest zone". Douglas fir becomes less of a dominate species, and the forest starts to be mainly composed of western red cedar, Sitka spruce, and western hemlock. Out of that, 500 species that were found were previously unknown to science. Moose rarely set foot into these forests, as they prefer colder, drier and snowier biomes, which are found mostly in the inland Western United States compared to the coast. But, there have been small sightings of moose have been reported along the British Columbia coast.

The rain forest exists in a complicated landscape of islands and fjords, and many species depend on both the forest and the ocean. Salmon are one of the primary species of the rainforest, spawning in the forest streams. The endangered spotted owl was at the center of logging controversies in Oregon and Washington. Other wildlife species of note include the bald eagle, marbled murrelet, wolf, mountain lion and sitka deer. In California, only 4% of the original redwoods have been protected. In Oregon and Washington, less than 10% of the original coastal rainforest area remains. Much of the land is rock, ice, muskeg, or less productive forest on steep slopes. The stereotypical old growth is limited to lowland flats and valleys, which have been preferentially targeted for logging. Historically, the most common protocol has been to place protected areas in the mountains, leaving the valleys to the timber industry. While some very large areas are protected as parks and monuments, very little of the highest-value habitat has been protected, and much of it has already been cut.

In the Tongass National Forest in the 1950s, in part to aid in Japanese recovery from World War II, the US Forest Service set up long term contracts with two pulp mills: the Ketchikan Pulp Company (KPC) and the Alaska Pulp Company (APC). These contracts were for 50 years, and divided up the forest into areas slated for APC logs and areas slated for KPC logs. These two companies conspired to drive log prices down, conspired to drive smaller logging operations out of business, and were major and recalcitrant polluters of their local areas. These long-term contracts guaranteed low prices to the pulp companies — in some cases resulting in trees being given away for less than the price of a hamburger. Since 1980, the US Forest Service has lost over a billion dollars in Tongass timber sales.

Half a million acres (2,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of the Tongass was selected by native corporations under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Much of this area has been clearcut.

The most controversial timber sales in the Tongass are in the roadless areas. Since 2001, political conflict over roadless area conservation has threatened the fate of the Tongass. In January 2023, the USDA and Forest Service under the Biden administration restored protections of the Tongass National Forest under the roadless rule. In 2025, the second Trump administration announced that it intended to revoke the Tongass's protections.

See also

  • Olympic National Park
  • Redwood National and State Parks

Notes

  • Endangered Ecosystems of the United States: A Preliminary Assessment of Loss and Degradation
  • British Columbia's Rainforests Essays.
  • Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
  • Raincoast, B.C.