The
Chilcotin Region encompasses the entire high elevation Chilcotin
Plateau, which is covered
with an interior spruce pine forest. This area contains many wetland meadows
and numerous small lakes which are used by an abundance of waterfowl.
Around the edge of the Chilcotin the plateau rises into some of the
most dramatic mountains and lakes in British Columbia.
This is country where the land ascends from hot dry grasslands to reach ice-covered rugged
heights of over
4,000 m (13,000 feet). Amidst these mountains great glaciers descend down
to 50 km (30 mi) long
azure blue lakes. Towering above the valleys carved by those glaciers is
BC highest mountain, Mount Waddington, at 4016 m (13,172 ft). Two major
river systems, the Homathko and the Klinaklini, head coastward
through the Coast Mountains, while the southeastern
portion of the Chilcotin Region is drained by the Chilko, Chilcotin, and
Fraser River systems. Hot grassland canyons found on the Chilko and Fraser rivers
are similar to landscapes seen in the southwestern United States,
and are places where desert bighorn sheep, cougar, and deer thrive.
The Chilanko wetland habitat found in th Chilcotin Region is nationally
significant because
of its use by migratory shorebirds and waterfowl for nesting. The wetlands are
also breeding center for Barrow's Goldeneye, and support
important populations of moose.
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