Peace River Regional District, British Columbia

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The Peace River Regional District is a regional district in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. The regional district is comprised of seven municipalities and four electoral areas. Its member municipalities are the cities of Fort St. John and Dawson Creek, the district municipalities of Tumbler Ridge, Chetwynd, Taylor, and Hudson's Hope, and the village of Pouce Coupe. Peace River also has four regional district electoral areas: B, C, D and E, six Indian reserves, and one Indian settlement. The district's administrative center is in Dawson Creek.

The regional district is characterized by rolling hills with grain and cattle farms. About 40% of the province's Agricultural Land Reserve is situated within the regional district. The Peace River flows west-to-east through the middle of the district. Its total land area is 119,200.1 km² (46,023.42 sq mi), the largest regional district in British Columbia in area. (The Stikine Region is larger, but is not technically a regional district.) The total population reported in the 2001 census was 55,080 with 22,755 private dwellings, down from 56,477 people in 1996.

Contents 1 Jurisdictions 2 Geography and climate 3 References 4 External link

[edit] Jurisdictions

Member	Population	Directors	Weighted Vote
City of Fort St. John	18,270	2	6
City of Dawson Creek	11,615	1	4
District of Chetwynd	2,866	1	1
District of Tumbler Ridge	2,698	1	1
District of Taylor	1,380	1	1
District of Hudson's Hope	1,157	1
Village of Pouce Coupe	910	1	1
Electoral Area “B”	6,395	1	2
Electoral Area “C”	7,461	1	2
Electoral Area “D”	7,496	1	2
Electoral Area “E”	4,021	1	2
Total	64,272	12	23

[edit] Geography and climate

The Regional District is the largest in the province, comprising 13% of its area. At 119,200 km² (46,023 mi²) it is similar in area to the American state of Pennsylvania or New Zealand's North Island. The northern border along the 58th parallel was created when the PRLRD split to create the PRRD and the NRRD. To the east the Regional District borders with the Alberta counties of Greenview, Grande Prairie, Saddle Hills, Clear Hills, and Northern Lights at the BC-Alberta border. The southwestern border runs along the Rocky Mountains, beginning at Intersection Mountain then northwesterly along the summit of the Hart Ranges to Williston Lake and then northwesterly along the watersheds of the Manson, Omineca, Mesilinka, Finlay, and Kechika rivers.

Despite this large area, only about 64,272 people live there, giving the Regional District a population density of 0.54 people per km² (1.4 people/mi²). The people live almost exclusively in the agricultural areas in British Columbia's portion of the Peace River Country straddling the Peace River. This biogeoclimatic zone, called the Boreal White and Black Spruce Zone, begins on the northern end of the Rockies and streches into Alberta and the NRRD. Here, mean annual temperatures have ranged between -2.9 and 2°C with annual precipitation averages between 330 and 570 mm.^[1]

According to BC's Ecoregion Classification System most of the Regional District is located in the Boreal Plains Ecoprovince of the Polar Ecodomain. This area is characterized by a continental climate with low year-round precipitation. Moist Pacific air loses its precipitation over several mountain ranges before moving over the region, while Artic air masses are uniterrupted. About 61% of BC's bird species and 46% of all breeding species occur in this ecoprovince. This ecoprovince is divided into four ecosections: the rolling uplands with few ridges and wide valleys of the Clear Hills and Halfway Plateau ecosections, the wide plains with deeply incised rivers of the Peace Lowland ecosection, and the rolling uplands and Rocky Mountain foothills of the Kiskatinaw Plateau ecosection. These ecosections have many wetlands, ponds, and slow-moving streams the area is a major migratory corridor for water- and shorebirds. Moose are the most common large mammal but mule and white-tailed deer, caribou, and elk are also very common. The ecosystem also supports Dall Sheep, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, and Gray Wolf. There are few small mammal or reptile species. Fish species are restricted to freshwater fish like the Arctic grayling, northern pike, and slimy sculpin.^[2]Major tree species include white spruce, black spruce, trembling aspen, lodgepole pine, balsam poplar, tamarack, subalpine fir, and paper birch.^[3]

[edit] References

• Community Profile: Peace River Regional District, British Columbia; Statistics Canada

[edit] External link

• Peace River Regional District