How to Use This Nature Guide

Purpose

Click to listen to a Hermit Thrush while you visit this page.
Recorded in the Rockies by Neville Recording , June 2014

This website has been prepared to help enrich your experience of travelling throughout British Columbia. It is planned to be helpful whether you are a visitor or a resident of the province.

This website is being built gradually, with more nature viewing sites being added from time to time. Our priority at the outset is to include sites that are more easily accessible by vehicle, along main roads and highways; as well as including car & ferry routes; and hiking trails.

To EXPLORE the map of BC Nature Viewing Areas, read detailed descriptions, and view site photos, click here.

For Nature Viewing Tips, click here.

British Columbia’s Diversity

British Columbia is the most biologically diverse province in Canada. The abundance of wildlife species in British Columbia is a result of the province’s wide range of landforms and climates. British Columbia’s wildlife habitats include marine, estuary, wetland, fresh water, grassland, alpine, desert, coastal interior, and mountain forests. These are described in:

BC’s Ecoregion Unit Descriptions.

Here are some statistics describing the richness of BC’s nature (source BC Environment):

  • Three-quarters of Canada’s mammal species are found in British Columbia; 24 of those species are exclusive to our province.
  • Over 250 bird species breed in the province, 162 of those (55%) breed nowhere else in Canada.
  • Invertebrate species probably number between 50,000 and 70,000, including 35,000 species of insects. B.C. has some of the most beautiful and most rare species of butterfly in Canada.
  • British Columbia has an estimated 2790 native vascular plants species, (nearly 27% are considered species at risk).
  • Approximately 1000 bryophytes (mosses and liverworts)

BC’s Biodiversity is Globally Significant

British Columbia has a wide and rich variety of landscapes, climate and geography. This diversity has resulted in a range of ecosystems – interrelated communities of plants and wildlife acting as a system in association with landscape and climate. In fact, British Columbia is the most biologically diverse province or territory in Canada; the variety and integrity of BC’s biodiversity makes it globally significant. “BC is special” is the conclusion of the report “Taking Nature’s Pulse – the Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia”.

The range of habitats in British Columbia includes forests, grasslands, meadows, wetlands, rivers, and intertidal and sub-tidal zones. According to BC Environment figures, these habitats support:

  • 143 species of mammals,
  • 454 bird species
  • 20 amphibian species,
  • 19 reptile species
  • 450 fish species

Invertebrate species probably number between 50,000 and 70,000, including 35,000 species of insects. An estimated 2,850 species of vascular plants, 1,000 mosses and liverworts, 1,600 lichens, 522 attached algae, and well over 10,000 fungi occur in the province.

For more information

For more information on British Columbia’s biodiversity, and threats to it, see:

Ministry of Environment: Biodiversity in BC

BiodiversityBC.org

Biodiversity of BC: UBC Department of Geography

Taking Nature’s Pulse – the Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia