A fertile plateau west of the Rocky Mountains gives way to rain forests along the fjord-indented Pacific coast. Here, the yearly precipitation of 380 centimeters (150 inches) sustains enormous tracts of Sitka spruce, hemlock, and red cedar—a tenth of North America's standing timber.

Explorers and fur trappers arrived in the late 1700s; gold seekers, lumberjacks, and fishermen followed, depleting resources that had served native peoples for centuries. Clear-cutting in old-growth forests prompts demands for a stricter national logging policy, with emphasis on sustainable-yield harvesting. Known for their diversity of plant and animal life, the Queen Charlotte Islands—home to the Haida people—are threatened by logging.

In 1971 British Columbia established ecological reserves; more than 150 now preserve sedge meadows, peat bogs, and dunes for study and limited recreation.

Salmon canning began along the Fraser River in 1870. More than a century later overfishing, pollution, and damming of spawning grounds for hydropower, have diminished Canada's most productive salmon fisheries. The federal and provincial governments have invested 565 million dollars to restore fish stocks.

Much of British Columbia's coal fuels Japanese and South Korean steel mills. Vancouver, Canada's gateway to Asia, will host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.