The
Cassiar region of the remote northwestern of
BC represents the essence of wilderness. This is a land of great glaciers
and some of the highest mountains in Canada: the St. Elias
Range found in the Tatshenshini. It is a region of ancient volcanoes, such as those found in
spectacular Mount Edziza Provincial Park.
The Cassiar Region offers visitors a top calibre wild experience. The globally-renowned
Tatshenshini River,
"North America's wildest
river", provides world class wilderness rafting. Spatsizi
offers once in a lifetime backcountry horseback riding and nature
viewing experiences, while Mount Edziza provides unique backpacking and
photography opportunities in the rainbow colored
volcanic cones of the Spectrum Range.
Great rivers carve their way through the area's coastal mountains. From north to south they are:
the Tatshenshini-Alsek, the Taku, the Whiting, the Stikine-Iskut,
and the Unuk. On the interior side of the mountains a complex of great plateau
lands contains some of North America's most important predator prey wildlife
populations. In particular, Spatsizi
Plateau Wilderness Park, and the Stikine headwaters are of paramount importance to
caribou, moose, mountain goat, grizzly and black bear, wolf, and wolverine.
The Cassiar is one of the last areas in BC with extensive unroaded
and unlogged expanses of wilderness. Along with the Northern Rockies,
this region provides some of the last major habitat for woodland
caribou in BC and in Canada. Once common throughout the
boreal forests of Canada, the caribou have dwindled to a few small
populations in Ontario and Quebec, with the majority remaining in
BC.
 The northwest portion of the Cassiar region contains part of a national band of boreal forests.
Along the west coast stretches of fast disappearing temperate rainforest are found.
These vast expanses of northern forests are an important ally
in the race to slow global warming, as the trees absorb heat trapping carbon dioxide
through photosynthesis.
In 1993, BC was able to protect the 1 million ha (2.4 million acre) Tatshenshini-Alsek
Park. This completed the largest international
protected area and World
Heritage Site on the planet (10 million ha/25 million acres), including Wrangell-St.
Elias, Glacier Bay, and Kluane National Parks.
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