About the Deh Cho
LANDSCAPE
Scientifically, the Deh Cho Travel route extends over three distinct Terrestrial Ecozones, the boreal plains, taiga plains and the taiga shield.
The Canadian Biodiversity Website:
HOWEVER
In layman terms, for the casual traveller, your adventure on the route and its side-trips will traverse 5 natural areas or regions. These include the Peace River region, the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains as well as the Mackenzie Mountains, the vast expanse of the boreal forest and, the Canadian Shield. As well you will also cross 3 of the continent’s major river systems, the Peace, Liard and Mackenzie.
Within these natural biomes there are some rather distinctive landscapes of interest.
Peace River Region
The Peace River is one of the most diverse and productive river valleys in the Parkland and Boreal Forest of Canada. It is a nationally significant waterway that supplies water to the Peace-Athabasca Delta, one of the largest freshwater deltas in the world. The valley provides key year-round habitat for moose, elk and deer, as well as significant habitat for rare birds of prey such as golden eagles, bald eagles and osprey.
Northern Rocky Mountains
Cutting a vast swath across the northern half of British Columbia, the Rocky Mountains and their foothills dominate the northeast. The Northern Rocky Mountains are the largest roadless landscape south of the 60th parallel, as well as one of the richest and most varied intact large wildlife ecosystems remaining in North America. The area's wildlife population is so prolific that this portion of the Northern Rockies has been dubbed the Serengeti of North America.
Mackenzie Mountains
The Mackenzie Mountains are a northern extension of the Rocky Mountains. The wide sweeping valleys of the Mackenzie and Liard rivers cut through this region, while other rivers have sliced through the extensive high plateau and mountains, carving deep canyons. The South Nahanni River is one of the best examples of this. Dense boreal forests of white and black spruce, with stands of jack-pine cover the rolling uplands and terraces above the Mackenzie and Liard river valleys.
Boreal Forest
The boreal forest consists of broad lowland plains and extensive hill systems. The landscape in this particular region is covered almost entirelyby trees, with aspen and balsam poplar dominating the evergreens. In the northernmost areas evergreens form a seemingly endless carpet, broken only by water in the form of fens, bogs, lakes and rivers.
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield is the largest mass of exposed Precambrian rock on Earth. The bedrock here is extremely old, and the region north of Great Slave Lake contains the oldest rock on the planet (over four billion years old). The terrain here is either flat or rolling hills. Advancing and retreating glaciers have scraped the ground bare and the resulting surface is now rocky, ice-smoothed hills and countless depressions which are now lakes or swamps.
Aspen parkland refers to a transitional ecosystem between prairie and boreal forest. On the route it stretches from northeastern British Columbia through central and northwestern Alberta. Aspen parkland consists of groves of aspen poplars and spruce interspersed with areas of prairie grasslands. This region is also intersected by large river valleys lined with aspen-spruce forests and dense shrubbery. This is a zone of constant competition and tension where prairie and woodlands struggle to overtake each other.
Karst is a distinctive topography in which the landscape is largely shaped by the dissolving action of water on carbonate bedrock (usually limestone). This geological process, occurring over many thousands of years, results in unusual surface and subsurface features ranging from sinkholes, vertical shafts, disappearing streams, and springs, to complex underground drainage systems and caves
Trees
Conifer and broadleaf trees can be seen in the mountainous landscapes, river valleys, prairie farmlands, and boreal plains along the route. White and black spruce, jack pine and tamarack are the main conifer species. Broadleaf trees include white birch, trembling aspen and balsam poplar.
Berries, Wildflowers and Plants
The northern forests are home to a variety of unique plants. Profusions of berries - edible and inedible - can be found throughout the area. Saskatoons, raspberries and strawberries are found in open meadows and bush edges. Bush cranberries and currants grow under aspen and mixed wood stands while bog cranberry, cloudberry, lingonberry and blueberry are found in the more acidic bogs beneath black spruce and tamarack.
Careful observation of the forest floor may reveal the dainty pink Fairy Slipper orchid or one of the several bog orchids in shaded moist areas. Roots of most orchids are very fragile and picking the flower can kill the plant. We suggest you capture their beauty on film and let them live and multiply.
If you enjoy the subtle colours and various shapes found in nature, you will enjoy searching for the different lichens found throughout the north. Lichens are a combination of a fungus and an algae living together. They form crusty or thready looking growths that occur in large numbers on the forest floor and in the trees and shrubs.
Wetlands
Much of the land along the MacKenzie Highway north of Meander River is wetland called muskeg or peatland made up of bogs and fens. Bogs are characterized by mainly stagnant collected rainwater, are low in nutrients and naturally acidic, with vegetation typically being sphagnum moss and black spruce. Fens usually have slow-flowing ground water, have more nutrients and are less acidic than bogs, and will support growth of grasses and sedges.
Discontinous permafrost is another common feature in the northern portion of the Deh Cho. This is ground or subsoil that remains permanently frozen, protected from the hot summer sun by plants, mosses and lichens.
