e rivers and lakes. Canada is divided into seven regions, each with a very different landscape and climate.1.The Pacific CoastBathed by warm, moist Pacific air currents, the British Columbia coast, indented by deep fiords and shielded from Pacific storms by Vancouver Island, has the most moderate climate of Canada's regions. Vancouver Island's west coast receives an exceptional amount of rain, giving it a temperate rain forest climate. Although it does not contain the diversity of species of a tropical rain forest, the island's west coast does have the oldest and tallest trees in Canada: Western Red Cedars 1300 years old and Douglas firs 90 m high.2. The CordilleraFrom British Columbia to just east of the Alberta border the land is young, with rugged mountains and high plateaus. Signs of geologically recent volcanic activity can be seen in Garibaldi Provincial Park in southern British Columbia and at Mount Edziza in the north. The Rocky Mountains, the Coastal Mountains and other ranges, running north to south, posed major engineering problems for the builders of the transcontinental railways and highways. Canada's highest peaks, however, are not in the Rockies, but in the St. Elias Mountains, an extension of the Cordillera stretching north into the Yukon and Alaska. The highest point in Canada, Mount Logan (6050 m) rises amid a huge ice field in the southwest corner of Yukon, the largest icecap south of the Arctic Circle. The British Columbia interior varies from alpine snowfields to deep valleys where desert-like conditions prevail. On the leeward side of the mountains, for example, a rain-shadow effect is created, forcing Okanogan Valley farmers to irrigate their orchards and vineyards.3. The PrairiesTo drive across the Prairies is to see endless fields of wheat ripening under a sky that seems to go on forever. The plains of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are among the richest grain-producing regions in the world. Yet, even here a...
