Browse "Regions"

Muskeg (from Cree maskek and Ojibwe mashkiig, meaning “grassy bog”) is a type of northern landscape characterized by a wet environment, vegetation and peat deposits. Chiefly used in North America, the term muskeg escapes precise scientific definition. It encompasses various types of wetlands found in the boreal zone, including bogs, fens, swamps and mires. In Canada, muskeg and other peatlands cover up to 1.2 million km², or 12 per cent of the country’s surface.

 New Caledonia ("New Scotland"), was a name given in 1806 to the central and highland plateau area of BRITISH COLUMBIA by Simon FRASER, a partner, trader and explorer in the NORTH WEST CO.

In strictly geographic terms, the North refers to the immense hinterland of Canada that lies beyond the narrow strip of the country in which most Canadians live and work, but generally refers to the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and Nunavut.

The Okanagan Valley is in south-central British Columbia, extending about 200 km north from the American border.

Old Crow Basin is an important geographic feature in the natural history and human history of Canada

The vegetation is of the tundra type, with outliers of the boreal spruce forest; willow thickets line the course of the Old Crow River.

The Peace River Lowland is a gently rolling lowland without clearly defined outer boundaries, extending east of the Rocky Mountains on both sides of the Peace River, sloping downward to the north and east.

Canada may be divided into seven physiographic regions: Arctic Lands, Cordillera, Interior Plains, Hudson Bay Lowland, Canadian Shield Forest Lands, St Lawrence Lowlands and Appalachia.

The Rocky Mountain Trench is a long and deep valley extending approximately 1,500 km from the Bitterroot Valley in northwest Montana through British Columbia to the Liard Plain just south of the Yukon Territory. Its predominantly flat floor is 3–20 km wide and ranges in elevation between 600 m and 1,000 m above sea level. With walls made of sedimentary, volcanic and igneous rock, the Trench is sometimes referred to as the “Valley of a Thousand Peaks” because of the towering mountain ranges on either side: the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Columbia, Omineca and Cassiar mountains to the west. Humans have relied on the rich resources provided by this distinctive landscape from pre-colonial times to the present.

St. Lawrence Lowland is a plain along the St. Lawrence River between Québec City in the east and Brockville, Ontario, in the west, including the Ottawa River valley west to Renfrew, Ontario.

Thousand Islands (Ontario part), an 80 km long section of the St Lawrence River, extending downstream from Lake Ontario between Kingston and Brockville and containing over 1000 rocky, wooded islands which range from several square kilometres to barely emergent rocks and shoals.

Tundra, which comes from a Sami word meaning “barren land,” refers to a treeless arctic region characterized by permafrost. Canada’s tundra is known for its freezing temperatures, lack of trees, low-growing vegetation and abundant rock outcrops. The southern boundary of tundra in Canada extends from the Mackenzie River delta to the southern reaches of Hudson Bay and northeast to the Labrador Peninsula. The term “alpine tundra” is often used to describe any area above the treeline in mountainous areas. But “alpine tundra” and “arctic tundra” are not interchangeable. (While the two regions share some similarities, the differences are significant.)

​Vegetation regions are geographical areas characterized by distinct plant communities.