Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the Pacific Coast of North America

The world’s most expansive stretch of coastal temperate and boreal rainforest issandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and a chain of coastal mountains spanning 23 degrees of latitude and some 3,600 kilometers. Here, rainforests extend from northern Kodiak Island and Prince William Sound, Alaska (61°N latitude)to just south of San Francisco Bay, California (38°N latitude; see figure 2-1). Along the coastline, rainforest is limited to moist climates extending to as muchas 160 kilometers inland in southeast Alaska and adjacent British Columbia to 60 kilometers or less in California and the Pacific Northwest. A secondary beltof rainforest up to 100 kilometers wide occurs along the western slopes of the Cascades from southern British Columbia to central Oregon.