Boreal Plains Ecoprovince

American Kestrel

The American kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America and weighs only 3 or 4 ounces.

Bald Eagle

Bald eagles are found all over B.C. and the U.S. The largest populations in North America live in B.C. and Alaska.

Balsam poplar

These trees often grow on the eastern slopes of hillsides. They thrive in moist soils near rivers or floodplains, but they can also grow in rocky soils.

Beaver

The beaver possesses many gifts! They are adept at swimming, building, and tree chomping.

Black and White Warbler

These iconic Canadian birds are also called the ‘black and white creeper’ because they creep along tree trunks looking for tasty insects.

Black Bear

Black bears and Pacific salmon play an important part in maintaining our forest ecosystems.

Black Huckleberry

Black Huckleberry is an important food in many First Nations communities. These berries can be eaten fresh, cooked, or dried into cakes.

Black Spruce

The black spruce can live for up to 250 years! Their cones which appear in clusters, are recorded to stay on the tree for 20 to 30 years at a time.

Bonaparte's Gull

These gulls nest in large numbers and produce two to three eggs at a time. These gulls are gifted with agility.

Boreal Chickadee

Boreal chickadees are an important indicator species of boreal ecosystems!

Boreal Chorus Frog

Boreal chorus frogs live in moist grassy or forested areas near wetlands across North America.

Boreal Owl

Boreal owls are gifted with incredible hearing. The position of their ears allows them to locate their prey.

Brown Lemming

Brown lemmings love to live in the cold! They like to eat mostly arctic grasses and moss.

Bunchberry

Bunchberries flower in May and June, later in the Northern Mountains and frequently flower a second time in the fall.

Canada Goose

These geese are found across Canada and in parts of the US and Mexico at different times throughout the year.

Canada Jay

Canada jays are omnivores. They feed on the meat of small animals, fruit, insects, and seeds. They will frequent campsites with easy access to food.

Canada Lynx

These beings are gifted with excellent patience, hearing, and night vision to hunt prey.

Cloudberry

Cloudberries are some of the most desirable, and yet elusive berries in the world. They grow in high altitudes, and cold, swampy, acidic environments.

Common Green Sphagnum Moss

Sphagnum moss is a small but mighty community member. Mosses are some of the first organisms to grow back after disturbances, such as fires and floods.

Common Juniper

Juniper berries stay on the tree for at least two years, and are eaten by American robins and black-capped chickadees.

Coyote

Coyotes are tactical beings, who are vital for their roles as scavengers. Coyotes keep areas clean by mostly feeding on rodents, rabbits, berries and carrion.

Creamy Peavine

The creamy peavine reaches 0.3 to 1 metres in height and it is a climbing plant.

Devil's Club

Despite its name, the Devil’s Club holds many gifts of healing. Its flowers appear in late spring to mid-summer.

Dog Lichen

Lichens can often be overlooked, but they contribute to ecosystem health like any other species!

Fireweed

Fireweed grows up to three metres tall. It has clusters of pink four-petaled flowers and long, green leaves growing out of a single tall stem.

Gray Wolf

Gray wolves can be found in Alaska, Canada, and a few small pockets in the northern US Rockies.

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly bears are omnivores, and they feed on salmon, carrion, trout, small rodents, insects, berries, leaves and roots.

Gull

Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay they’d be bagels (bay-gulls)!

Hermit Thrush

Hermit thrushes are omnivores and help to balance the populations of insects, amphibians, lizards and plants.

Highbush Cranberry

Despite the name, highbush cranberry is not a cranberry at all! These are actually part of the honeysuckle family

Hoary Marmot

Hoary marmots live at high elevations, near the tree line on rocky slopes and alpine meadows. They are found throughout the mountainous areas of B.C.

Horsetail

Horsetails can be found almost everywhere around the world except Australia and New Zealand.

Kinnikinnick

Kinnikinnick is a small, trailing, evergreen shrub with dark green leaves. Its bright red berries look like miniature apples and have a large hard seed.

Knight's Plume Moss

In Knight’s plume, there is a brown capsule that grows out of the branches to release these spores.

Labrador tea

Found in low to mid elevations, they grow in peatlands and boggy areas. Labrador tea is able to grow in soil that is acidic and low in nutrients.

Least Chipmunk

Chipmunks fill their stretchy cheek pouches with the food they coChipmunks fill their stretchy cheek pouches with the food they collect. They'll store it in their nests or in small holes they have dug in the ground.llect and store it in their nests or in small holes they have dug in the ground.

Least Weasel

The least weasel eats primarily mice, voles, and insects, but some birds' eggs and frogs make up its diet.

LeConte's Sparrow

These sparrows have a mottled brown back with a white belly and crown stripe, an orange-yellow eye stripe and collar.

Lesser Yellowlegs

They are alert birds that defend their territory and keep their eyes out for trespassers, dipping their heads up and down while watching them.

Little brown myotis

Little brown myotis live in a wide range of habitats, from northern and coastal forests to grasslands and pine forests.

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole pine has serotinous cones, which means they rely on fire to open. Cones open when heat is present, and the seeds are then spread on the open ground.

Marten

Martens are mainly threatened by habitat and food loss (especially because of logging), disease, and in the past, over-trapping for their fur.

Meadow Vole

Meadow voles are often called field mice, but they actually have shorter tails and ears than mice.

Moose

Moose are herbivores, and eat twigs, shrubs, bark and tender plants. As a grazing animal, moose can change the landscape to increase heterogenized vegetation.

Mountain Goat

Mountain goats are a critical species for alpine and high-altitude ecosystems. Mountain goats have the incredible ability to stand on an area the size of a Canadian quarter.

Mule Deer

Mule deer are primary consumers. They eat grass, foliage, twigs, and shrubs.

Muskrat

Muskrats often get mistaken for beavers, and are specially adapted to chewing on plants underwater.

Mussels

Mussels are a type of clam that have a long shell. Mussels live in the same place their entire lives (they are “sedentary”) and fix themselves in place by their byssal threads.

Nootka Lupine

The Nootka lupine is notable for the beautiful pink and white flowers that pop up in the summers of British Columbia.

Northern Flying Squirrel

Northern flying squirrels act as nature’s gardeners in the forest. These animals help plants grow by dispersing fungi spores that help new mushrooms, like truffles, to grow.

Northern hawk owl

Northern hawk owls are a little smaller than crows and have long, rounded tails and striped bellies.

Northern Long-Eared Myotis

Northern long-eared myotis are mouse-eared bats with long, rounded ears. They have a distinct dull-brown coloured spot on their shoulder.

Osprey

Known as fish-hawks, these raptors can often be found gliding on their five-foot wingspan around coastal areas.

Paper Birch

Paper birch is a small to medium sized deciduous tree that grows 30 to 40 metres tall and has a trunk that grows up to 75 centimetres in diameter.

Pine Siskin

Pine siskins are small birds that resemble a sparrow when perched and measure only 4.25 inches long.

Porcupine

Porcupines play a crucial role in the establishment of forests and the development of ecosystems. Porcupines eat mostly the inner bark of trees, but sometimes tender leaves and stems.

Prickly Rose

The prickly rose grows up to 1.5 metres tall and has stems covered in short, hard prickles. It has a large pink single flower with a strong sweet smell.

Red-Osier Dogwood

Red-osier dogwood is a plant that protects and provides for its community.

Red-tailed hawk

Red-tailed hawks have many different colour patterns in both light and dark phases, but most adults have a red-coloured tail and a light belly with a dark band across it.

River Otter

River otters have a unique gift for communication! They communicate via speech, smell, touch and body language.

Round-Leaved Sundew

This is a small insect-eating plant that has sticky red tentacles for capturing insects such as mosquitoes, midges and gnats.

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill cranes are one of the oldest living bird species in the world. Fossils of the sandhill crane date back over 10 million years!

Saskatoon berry

The Saskatoon berry plant varies in size from being a shrub of one metre tall to a small tree of five metres tall. The berries are purple to nearly black in colour.

Sharp-Tailed Grouse

This grouse species has an extravagant mating dance that is performed on mating grounds known as leks.

Snow Bunting

Snow buntings are a kind of sparrow. They are an important part of the ecosystem and food chain.

Solitary Sandpiper

Solitary sandpipers eat from the shallow waters and muddy shores of marshes, finding frogs, spiders, crustaceans, and a variety of insects.

Soopolallie

Soopolallie is an incredibly important plant for bears! The berries of this shrub appear from late July to mid-August. These berries are a main part of a bear’s diet.

Spruce Grouse

Spruce grouse are unique in that they like to live in regenerating forests. They play an important part in the restoration of ecosystems after disturbance.

Subalpine Fir

Subalpine fir is an important tree for animal habitat in B.C.’s interior and high-elevation forests.

Tall Bluebell

The tall bluebell is signified by its beautiful blue flowers, which are are pollinated by native bumblebees.

Tamarack

Tamarack is a conifer tree that loses its needles in the fall. It usually only grows as high as 15 meters and has three-sided needles in clusters of 12 to 20.

Three-Toed Woodpecker

True to their name, the woodpeckers peck at wood to get to the delicious insects that live under the bark of various trees.

Trembling Aspen

The trembling aspen is quick-growing but does not live for more than 50 years. These plants are gifted at fostering community.

Twinflower

Twinflower is a short trailing shrub, less than 10 centimetres tall, with long stems that run along the ground and send up shoots.

Western Jumping Mouse

Western jumping mice hibernate during the winter and spend most of their days in the summer building up fat reserves for this dormant period.

White Spruce

White spruce grow from a stunted bush up to a 40 metre tall tree, with smooth, shiny twigs and grey scaly bark.

White Tailed Deer

The deer will band together during the winter when food is scarce, as the snow may be high and feeding areas may be limited.

White-Tailed Ptarmigan

Ptarmigans change the colour of their feathers in winter and summer so they can blend in with their habitat and be protected from predators.

Wolverine

Wolverines are in the weasel family, but are shaped more like a small bear. Wolverines are carnivores, usually scavenging rather than hunting.

Wood Frog

Wood frogs eat mostly worms, insects, snails, and other small creatures, but they have also been known to eat small frogs.

Woodland caribou

Woodland caribou are found in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and in central/northern B.C. with a pocket in the Central Interior’s Chilcotin.

Woods Rose

Woods rose has flowers that are bright pink and look very different from roses you can buy in a flower shop.

Yarrow

Yarrow is a generous plant and a team player. The flowers, leaves, and entire plant have edible and medicinal properties.

Boreal Plains

Species of the Boreal Plains

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