A Journey into the Inland Temperate Rainforest

Join Conservation Specialist Eddie Petryshen for an evening about one of the world’s rarest and most threatened ecosystems – right in your backyard.

Admission by Donation.

About the ITR:

The Inland Temperate Rainforest (ITR) ecosystem covers 40 million acres, and stretches over 1,100 kilometres in a broad arc from central Idaho to Prince George, British Columbia, encompassing a globally unique, rich and diverse landscape. More than 500 kilometres from the sea, this ecosystem is the last inland rainforest left on earth that is somewhat intact.

In this globally unique ecosystem, the wet and super wet cedar-hemlock forests are the prime jewel. These forests contain species that are new to science and harbour an amazing diversity of rare plants, animals, and fungi. This region is home to deep snow caribou which are a unique ecotype of mountain caribou, evolved to live in the deep snows and old growth forests of the Inland Temperate Rainforest.

Historically, the vast majority of forests in Inland Temperate Rainforest were ancient old growth. Today, there is nearly three times more young forest in the Revelstoke-Shuswap area than under historic natural disturbance regimes due to logging.

At a provincial scale, only three percent of the productive low elevation old growth that grows large trees remains. The vast majority of these productive old growth forests are slated to be logged in the near future.