By: Joel Ophardt
What is Natural Vegetation?
Natural vegetation is the type of vegetation that we get in a region without human disturbance. The vegetation we find cultivated from humans is quite different from that of natural vegetation because Natural Vegetation depends on the Climatic and Soil condition. Climate, fauna and soils affect natural vegetation. In turn vegetation affects each of them. Plants must have moisture and heat to a certain degree of growth the level of this is how we determine the vegetative regions. There are various types of vegetative regions: Desert (warm no vegetation and very little precipitation), Tundra
(cold temperature with little precipitation and shrubs), short grasslands
(warm and little rain), Tall grasslands (warm temperatures and little rain),
Boreal Forest (semi cold and coniferous trees), Mixed Forest (moderate temperature with coniferous and deciduous trees and medium precipitation),
Deciduous forest (fairly hot temperature with fair amount of rain and only deciduous trees) and Rainforest (any temperature, any type of vegetation and extreme precipitation).
In Canada and B.C.
The following are the vegetative regions that are found within Canada.

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The following regions are the vegetative regions in B.C. B.C’s vegetative regions include The Boreal and Taiga Forest, The Cordilleran Vegetation and West Coast Forest.

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The Cordilleran Vegetation:
The Cordilleran Vegetation makes up most of B.C.’s vegetative regions. It makes up the entire province except for the small rectangular shaped division of the Boreal and Taiga Forest located in the north east and the sliver of the West Coast Forest running along the coast.
The climate in the Cordilleran Vegetation varies depending on elevation. The valleys tend to have warmer temperatures than the high mountains. Because of the ocean and the mountains there is heavier rainfall on the west side than on the east side because of relief precipitation. The vegetation is greatly affected by this. The grasses and cactuses tend to grow in the dry, hot valleys on the east side and the Forests are located on the west. In addition sometimes the steep slopes allow nothing to grow on them.
Also Forests in this region tend to be coniferous. The kind of vegetation also greatly depends on elevation. The Forests are located on the bottom of the mountains whereas when it gets higher we get above the tree line and we start to see tundra-like vegetation. Soils of all types can be found on the

mountains of the Cordilleran Vegetation region. The type of soil once again depends on slope, rainfall, and vegetation within the Cordilleran Vegetation.
West Coast Forest:
The West Coast Forest is located along the west coast of British Columbia.
It makes up the second largest vegetation region of the three regions within
B.C.
The West Coast Forest has many regions classified as rainforest and the rest are very close to it. The trees are lush and thick, they include
Douglas fir, Sitka, Spruce, Red Cedar, and Western Hemlock. There is obviously heavy rainfall within this region. The Climate is moderated by the ocean and made warmer by the ocean current around it. The soils are also very poor within the A horizon due to excessive leaching. Thus only trees could grow in this region and not many plants are found.
Boreal and Taiga Forest:
The Boreal and Taiga Forest make up the largest vegetative region within Canada, but it is the smallest one within B.C. The Region is located in a small space in the northeast part of B.C.
Within this region we only have coniferous trees, this includes trees such as white and black spruce, balsam fir and pine. This region receives a fair amount of precipitation to survive off of as they receive a little more precipitation than the tundra region does receive just above them. The soil in this region is grey coloured as result of there not being very much humus in its top layer. The soil is very acidic because of the needle trees. The needles from the trees are acidic and as they decompose they leave behind the acid in the soil. Thus this region is very infertile for agriculture. This region also has a very short growing season due to little precipitation and a cold climate.
Overall:
This region has a wide variety of different soils, climates, and vegetation.
When one can sum up B.C. we can surely say this is the most diverse province in every single aspect.

**** All the pictures used in this summarization of the vegetative regions in
B.C. were scanned from the Making Connections Canada’s Geography textbook through Joel Ophardt.