|
North Cascades Environmental Learning Center is surrounded by 7,000,000 acres of protected public lands in Washington and British Columbia. In the middle lies 684,000-acre North Cascades National Park – our neighborhood.
With 93% of its area designated as Wilderness, the Park is known for its steep mountains, ever-flowing streams and tremendous biological diversity. East and west of the Pacific Crest, several major watersheds flow from the North Cascades, including the Skagit River, the largest basin draining into Puget Sound. With more than 300 glaciers and countless snowfields, the Park is one of the most rugged and heavily glaciated areas in the United States outside of Alaska.
Plant life in the North Cascades is extremely varied, reflecting differences in rock and soil types, exposure, slope, elevation and rainfall. Eight distinctive life zones support more than 1627 vascular plant species. Estimates of non-vascular plants and fungi could be more than double the total number of plants species. North Cascades National Park is one of the most vegetationally diverse parks in North America.
Researchers have also identified 75 mammal species in 20 families; 21 species of reptiles and amphibians in at least four orders; approximately 200 species of birds in 38 families; over 500 types of land insects and approximately 250 aquatic invertebrate species; and 28 species of fish. The Skagit River harbors eight species of anadromous fish, including five species of native salmon. Evident of the river’s vitality, the fish comprise more than one-third of the salmonid population entering Puget Sound.
Long before the Park was established in 1968, the North Cascades were home to many Native American tribes and a trade gateway between the Columbia Plateau tribes to the east and the Coast Salish tribes to the west. Native American culture has existed here for more than 8,000 years. Settlers came in the nineteenth century to establish homesteads in the upper Skagit and Stehekin valleys and to mine elusive minerals like gold or trap furbearing animals. In the early twentieth century, Seattle City Light constructed three dams along the upper Skagit River, creating several reservoirs such as 25-mile-long Ross Lake.
Today, these wildlands are formally managed as the North Cascades National Park Service Complex, which includes the Park and the Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas. In addition to waterborne journeys, visitors can enjoy several car-accessible campgrounds, as well as 386 miles of maintained trails and over 200 designated backcountry campsites. In the heart of it all sits North Cascades Environmental Learning Center.
 North Cascades National Park
|
