Montane spruce zone

The montane spruce zone (MS zone) occupies a narrow, mid-elevation band in the mountains and plateaus of the dry southern interior of British Columbia. Although the zone is mostly forested, in some areas it contains numerous lakes, wetlands, and meadows.

Tree species descriptions

The zone's extensive lodgepole pine forests are an important economic resource and its climate of cool, dry summers and cold winters makes it a popular area for recreational activities such as hunting, camping, fishing, skiing and hiking. It lies nestled between the high-elevation subalpine forests of spruce and subalpine fir and the lower-elevation forests of Douglas-fir or lodge-pole pine in the province's dry southern interior.

The MS zone normally occupies a relatively narrow elevational band of about 300 to 400 metres. In some areas, though, the zone is rather widespread because the prevailing elevation of the plateaus is in this elevational band. In wetter climatic areas, it occurs at elevations of about 1100 to 1500 metres, and in drier areas at about 1250 to 1650 metres.

The MS zone extends from the Fraser Plateau south to northern Washington, Idaho, and Montana and east to Alberta. It occurs on the broad, rising plateau that surrounds the Itcha and Ilgachuz mountains, the Southern Interior Plateau in the Fraser, Thompson, and Okanagan areas, on the lee side of the Coast and Cascade mountains and in the southern Rocky Mountains and the Rocky Mountain Trench. 

Subzone/variants in the MS zone

Tree species descriptions:

• dc subzone, variant 2 (PDF, 140KB)
• dv subzone (PDF, 181KB)
• xv subzone (PDF, 139KB)