BACKGROUND - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 709

The coastal region boasts the mildest climate in all of Canada, but this comes with one
drawback: It rains a lot. The two main cities, Vancouver and Victoria, lie within this zone.
Most of the interior is influenced by both continental and maritime air, resulting in colder,
relatively dry winters and hot, dry summers. Meanwhile, the northern latitudes are influen-
ced by polar continental and arctic air masses, making for extremely cold, snowy winters
and short, cool, wet summers.
Precipitation in British Columbia is strongly influenced by the lay of the land and the
waft of the wind, resulting in an astonishing variation in rainfall from place to place. For ex-
ample, Lillooet, in the sheltered Fraser River Valley, is Canada's driest community, whereas
Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island's west coast averages 4,000 millimeters (157 inches) of
precipitation annually. The amount of precipitation any given area receives is greatly de-
termined by its location on the windward or lee side of the major mountain ranges—the
windward side usually cops most of the downpour. Hence, the western side of the Coast
Range is wet, the Interior Plateau on the east side of the Coast Range is relatively dry, and
the western, windward side of the Rockies along the Alberta border is once again wet.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Humans have been exploiting British Columbia's abundant natural resources for 10,000
years. Indigenous people hunting and fishing obviously had little effect on ecological in-
tegrity, but over time, the clearing of land for agriculture and development did. Today, the
province is minimizing the effects of logging operations, global warming, fish farming, and
offshore oil and gas exploration that are hot-button environmental issues in the region.
As rising population numbers have put ever-increasing demands on the region's plentiful
natural resources, conservation measures have become necessary. The province has im-
posed fishing and hunting seasons and limits, a freeze on rezoning agricultural land, and
mandatory reforestation regulations, and has restrained hydroelectric development to pro-
tect salmon runs. By preserving its superb physical environment, the province will continue
to attract outdoor enthusiasts and visitors from around the world, ensuring a steady stream
of tourism revenues. But the ongoing battle between concerned conservationists and profit-
motivated developers continues.
Forestry
The issue of forestry management in British Columbia, and most notably on Vancouver Is-
land, is very complex, and beyond the scope of a guidebook. In British Columbia, where
a couple of mega-companies control an industry worth $17 billion annually to the local