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Shining Mountains Project

Methodology and Classification Background

In 1990 an ad hoc committee responsible for the development of a recovery plan and for the management of existing grizzly bear populations in northwestern Montana, southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta (the Northern Continental Divide Grizzly Bear Subcommittee) approached the British Columbia Wildlife Branch to develop an overview ecosystem map for their area of management concern. Such a mapping project would use the existing broad-level ecosystem classification developed and mapped in British Columbia as the basis for further mapping. In the United States portion of the project area, while there was detailed habitat-type mapping of the forested lands within the National and State Forests and Indian Reservations, there was, however, no overview zonal ecosystem mapping to tie all the habitat types together within a larger framework. In the Alberta portion their ecosystem classification was different from that from either BC or the US.

Mapping in the Shining Mountains Ecoprovince project concentrated at two levels: a regional ecosystem or the Ecoregion level, in order to place continental and region level ecosystems into perspective; and a zonal level in order to place the local ecosystems into a regional perspective.

Why the name ‘Shining Mountains”? Simply, there is no common geological, geographical or political name for the region of mountains, foothills and valleys that extends from Willmore Wilderness and Jasper National Park in Alberta, Kakwa and Mount Robson Provincial Parks in British Columbia south to the Clearwater River in Idaho and the Upper Missouri River in Montana. In Alberta the mountains are simply called the Rocky Mountains, In British Columbia, there is a clear distinction made between the Columbia Mountains and the southern Rocky Mountains, while in the United States the area is referred to as the Northern Rocky Mountains. The Plains Indians referred to the Rocky Mountains as the Usinee Wuhtce, that is, “the Shining Mountains” (MacGregor 1954) a fitting description of not only the Rockies but of all the mountains for the larger project area, because once again, there is no common name to describe the area from the 45’ north latitude to the 61' north latitude. The large icefields and snow-capped summits give the entire area a “shining mountain” appearance.

This project had 3 phases:

  1. In 1990, to map the area of the Flathead River watershed and adjacent Rocky Mountains.
  2. In 1992, to map a sufficient area in Montana, Idaho, BC and Alberta to delimit the ecosystem units that adjoin, southeastern British Columbia, northwestern Montana, and southwestern Alberta. It also became apparent that the interior temperate rainforests should be mapped to their southernmost extend in the Clearwater River drainage in Idaho; The first phase was rolled into the second, which was published in 1992 (Demarchi and Lea 1992).
  3. In 1998, to map the full extend of all Ecosections that originate in British Columbia, plus map to the coast in Washington, and include all of Alberta and adjacent Northwest Territory.