Biogeoclimatic Maps (zone or subzone/variant)

Version History

Version 8 (released 2011/10/31) (top)
Large-scale biogeoclimatic mapping (tied to the 1:20,000 TRIM base) has been incorporated within the following management units of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations:
  • Haida Gwaii District
  • Kalum District
  • Cassiar Timber Supply Area
Additional Specific Subzone/Variant Spatial Changes:
  • ESSFun and ESSFunp are now mapped in the northern Kalum District and adjacent Cassiar Timber Supply Area and represent a “snow belt” ESSF subzone not previously described or mapped.
  • ICHmc1a is described in LMH26 and mostly occurs as small inclusions within the mapped ICHmc1. Some larger areas are now mapped.
  • MHun and MHunp are now mapped in the northern Kalum District. These area were previously mapped as ESSFwv or MHmm2 but are characterized by a strong intergradations between the two and reflect a submaritime variant that has not yet been classified.
  • SWBun and SWBuns are now mapped throughout most of the western Cassiar Timber Supply Area. Historically, the SWBuns was included with the adjacent alpine when originally mapped at the 1:600k scale.
  • SWBvks is now mapped separately.  The SWBvks was historically included with the alpine when originally mapped at the scale of 1:600,000 in the Tatshenshini–Alsek area of Northwest British Columbia. 
  • Some small spatial changes were made in an area west of Penticton (at approximately 120°7'56"W 49°36'57"N) and south of Coldstream (at approximately 119°12'28"W 50°10'55"N)
Subzone/Variant Non-spatial Changes:
  • CWHvm2 replaces all of the CWHvm3, which was mapped in the Mid-Coast Timber Supply Area (TSA) (North Island - Central Coast District).
  • BWBSdk replaces all of the BWBSdk1, which was mapped in the Cassiar TSA (Skeena-Stikine District), Mackenzie TSA (Mackenzie District), and Prince George TSA (Fort St James District).
  • BWBSmk replaces all of the BWBSdk2, which was mapped in the Cassiar TSA (Skeena-Stikine District) and Fort Nelson TSA (Fort Nelson District).
  • BWBSmk also replaces all of the BWBSmw2, which was mapped in the Fort Nelson TSA (Fort Nelson District) and Fort St John TSA (Peace District).
  • BWBSmw replaces all of the BWBSmw1, which was mapped in the Fort St John and Dawson Creek TSAs (Peace District).
Version 7 (released 2008/03/31) (top)
Large-scale biogeoclimatic mapping (tied to the 1:20 000 TRIM base) has been incorporated for the following MFR Forest Districts:
  • Quesnel (east of the Fraser River only)
  • Central Cariboo (west and central portion only)
  • Chilcotin
  • 100 Mile House
  • Rocky Mountain Forest District has received extensive updates
Other spatial changes:
  • Some small changes along the boundary between Quesnel Forest District and both Vanderhoof and Prince George Forest Districts.
  • Updated all the mapping inside the IDFxh1/IDFdk1 boundary in south Okanagan Shuswap Forest District.
  • Some changes along the boundary between 100 Mile House Forest District and Kamloops Forest District
  • Fixed a small polygon near Cache Creek (in Kamploops Forest District) mislabelled as IDFxh1a. Changed to IDFxh2a.
  • Fixed the PPxh2 and PPxh2a mapping east of Kamloops (in Kamloops and Okanagan Shuswap Forest Districts)
Subzone/Variant Changes:
  • MSdc1d changed to MSdc3 in Cascades Forest District
  • ESSFdv changed to ESSFdv1 in Cascades Forest District
  • ESSFdv d changed to ESSFdv2 in Cascades Forest District
  • IDFdm2n changed to IDFdk5 in Rocky Mountain Forest District and Columbia Forest District
  • PPdh1 changed to PPxh3 in Arrow Boundary Forest District
  • ICHmk1 changed to ICHmk4 in East Kootenays only (Columbia, Rocky Mountain, and Kootenay Lake Forest Districts)
  • MSdk changed to MSdk2 in Columbia Forest District
  • ICHmk1 changed to ICHmk4 in Columbia Forest District
  • MSxk changed to MSxk3 in Central Cariboo Forest District
  • ESSFdk1 changed to ESSFdk2 in Columbia Forest District
Variant Name Changes:
  • ESSFdc2 variant changed from 'South Thompson' to 'Cascade' in Okanagan Shuswap and Cascades Forest Districts
  • ESSFdk1 variant changed from 'Kootenay' to 'Elk' in Rocky Mountain Forest District
  • ESSFdk2 variant changed from 'Spillimacheen' to 'Columbia' in Columbia and Rocky Mountain Forest Districts
  • ESSFwc2 variant changed from 'Northern Monashee' to 'Monashee' in Headwaters, Columbia, Kamloops and Okanagan Shuswap Forest Districts
  • ESSFwc2w variant changed from 'Northern Monashee' to 'Monashee' in Headwaters Forest District
  • ICHmk1 variant changed from 'Kootenay' to 'Okanagan' in Arrow Boundary and Okanagan Shuswap Forest Districts
  • ICHmw1 variant changed from 'Golden' to 'Kinbasket' in Columbia and Rock Mountain Forest Districts
  • ICHvk1 variant changed from 'Mica' to 'Columbia' in Arrow Boundary, Headwaters, Columbia, and Okangan Shuswap Forest Districts
  • ICHvk1c variant changed from 'Mica' to 'Columbia' in Headwaters Forest District
  • ICHwk1 variant changed from 'Wells Gray' to 'Shuswap' in Arrow Boundary, Headwaters, Okanagan Shuswap, Kootenay Lake, Kamloops, and Columbia Forest Districts
  • ICHwk1c variant changed from 'Wells Gray' to 'Shuswap' in Headwaters and Okanagan Shuswap Forest Districts
  • MSdc1 variant changed from 'Bridge' to 'Cayoosh' in Cascades Forest District
  • MSdm2 variant changed from 'South Thompson' to 'Cascade' in Kamloops, Cascades and Okanagan Shuswap Forest Districts
Version 6 (released 2006/01/17) (top)
New Biogeoclimatic Zones have been added to differentiate the Alpine Tundra based on its ecology and location in the province:
  • BAFA - Boreal Altai Fescue Alpine
  • CMA - Coastal Mountain-heather Alpine
  • IMA - Interior Mountain-heather Alpine
Large scale biogeoclimatic mapping (tied to the 1:20 000 TRIM base) has been incorporated for the following MFR Forest Districts:
  • Quesnel (west of the Fraser River only)
  • Central Cariboo (eastern portion only - ex Horsefly)
  • Nadina (Eastern portion only - ex Lakes)
  • Okanagan Shuswap
  • Cascades
  • Kamloops
  • Headwaters (Southern portion only - ex Clearwater)
  • Rocky Mountain (Northern portion only - ex Invermere)
Version 5 (released 2003/04/17) (top)
Label Changes:
  • Variant designations have been removed from all parkland, woodland and upper subzones.
  • All upper subzones in previously available tbec coverages have been changed to woodland subzones.
  • Change all "MH wh" to "MH wh 1 " or "MH wh 2 ". Delineates the variant.
  • Change much of the "SWB un " to "SWB mk " throughout the northern portion of the MOF Skeena-Stikine Forest District (ex Cassiar).
Large scale biogeoclimatic mapping (tied to the 1:20 000 TRIM base) was incorporated for the following MOFR Forest Districts:
  • North Coast
  • Fort Nelson
  • Fort St. James
  • Mackenzie
  • Nadina (western portion only - ex Morice)
  • Peace
  • Prince George
  • Skeen Stikine (southern portion only - ex Bulkely)
  • Vanderhoof
  • Arrow Boundary (eastern portion only - ex Boundary)
  • Headwaters (northern portion only - ex Robson Valley)
  • Kootenay Lake
  • Rocky Mountain (southern portion only - ex Cranbrook)
Changes to data structure:
  • Arc attributes are no longer used to designate scale of mapping.
  • The field BECLABEL is now explicitly broken into its constituents part (Zone, Subzone, Variant and Phase) rather than being redefined.
  • The field FCN (Feature Code Number) has been dropped.
Version 4 (released 2001/06/13) (top)

Deleted the coast line and extended the polygons beyond the provincial boundary to facilitate overlay with base information at any scale.

Label changes:
  • Change all "MH  wh 1 " and "MH  wh 2 " to "MH  wh   ".  Eliminates the variants.
  • Change all "ESSFmw h" to "MH  mm 2 ".  Eliminates the phase.
  • Change all "MH  mm 2e" to "ESSFmw   ".  Eliminates the phase.
Large scale biogeoclimatic mapping (tied to the 1:20 000 TRIM base) was incorporated for the following MOFR Forest Districts:
  • Columbia
  • Arrow Boundary (Western portion only - ex Arrow)
Version 3 (released 1998/07/02) (top)
  • Minor label errors and linework changes in the ex-Cariboo Forest Region
Version 2 (released 1998/06/17) (top)
  • Fixed label errors in the ex-Cariboo Forest Region
Version 1 (released 1995/03/31) (top)
  • Original version of the provincial digital Biogeoclimatic Subzone variant map based on compilation of digital mapping provided by Ministry of Forests, Forest Science Program Regional Ecologists at the time. The original subzone/variant boundaries were drawn by hand on maps ranging in scale from 1:100,000 to 1:600,000.