ecozone to the west, cast a “rain shadow” across the central and southern plateaux, resulting in very low annual precipitation (300 millimetres) in this area. The west side of the Rocky Mountains has much higher precipitation (1200 millimetres), as the high ranges force air streams to rise and drop their moisture as rain or snow. The mildest area of the region is in the Okanagan area, in the south, with mean annual temperatures of 15°C in the summer and -3.5°C in the winter (Kamloops, in fact, has the warmest summers in Canada, with average daytime temperatures of 27.2°C). The coldest area is in the northwest, in the Skeena Mountains of British Columbia, with means of 11°C in the summer and -11°C in the winter.

Human beings, beginning with the ancestors of today’s Blackfoot, Kootenay, Lilloet, Stoney, and other native peoples, have lived in the Montane Cordillera for 11,000 years. The region now has a

population of about three quarters of a million, 150,000 of whom are in Kelowna, the largest urban centre (all the other large towns – Kamloops, Prince George, and Vernon – are also in British Columbia). Approximately half the population lives in the towns, and people work mainly in jobs related to forestry, tourism, mining, oil and gas production, fruit growing, and cattle grazing.