1.
Alaska
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Alaska is a U. S. state located in the northwest extremity of North America. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas–the southern parts of the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, the 3rd least populous, approximately half of Alaskas residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaskas economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, the area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11,1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U. S. on January 3,1959, the name Alaska was introduced in the Russian colonial period when it was used to refer to the peninsula. It was derived from an Aleut, or Unangam idiom, which refers to the mainland of Alaska. Literally, it means object to which the action of the sea is directed, Alaska is the northernmost and westernmost state in the United States and has the most easterly longitude in the United States because the Aleutian Islands extend into the Eastern Hemisphere. Alaska is the only non-contiguous U. S. state on continental North America and it is technically part of the continental U. S. but is sometimes not included in colloquial use, Alaska is not part of the contiguous U. S. often called the Lower 48. The capital city, Juneau, is situated on the mainland of the North American continent but is not connected by road to the rest of the North American highway system. Alaskas territorial waters touch Russias territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island, Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U. S. states combined. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by total area at 663,268 square miles, over twice the size of Texas, Alaska is larger than all but 18 sovereign countries. Counting territorial waters, Alaska is larger than the area of the next three largest states, Texas, California, and Montana. It is also larger than the area of the 22 smallest U. S. states. Also referred to as the Panhandle or Inside Passage, this is the region of Alaska closest to the rest of the United States, as such, this was where most of the initial non-indigenous settlement occurred in the years following the Alaska Purchase. The region is dominated by the Alexander Archipelago as well as the Tongass National Forest and it contains the state capital Juneau, the former capital Sitka, and Ketchikan, at one time Alaskas largest city. The Alaska Marine Highway provides a vital transportation link throughout the area. The Interior is the largest region of Alaska, much of it is uninhabited wilderness, Fairbanks is the only large city in the region
2.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
3.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu, the capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871, First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
4.
Tongass National Forest
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The Tongass National Forest /ˈtɒŋɡəs/ in Southeast Alaska is the largest national forest in the United States at 17 million acres. The Tongass, which is managed by the United States Forest Service, encompasses islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords and glaciers, an international border with Canada runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The forest is administered from Forest Service offices in Ketchikan, there are local ranger district offices located in Craig, Hoonah, Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Thorne Bay, Wrangell, and Yakutat. The Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve was established by Theodore Roosevelt in a proclamation of 20 August 1902. Another presidential proclamation made by Roosevelt, on 10 September 1907, on 1 July 1908, the two forests were joined, and the combined forest area encompassed most of Southeast Alaska. Further presidential proclamations of 16 February 1909 and 10 June, an early supervisor of the forest was William Alexander Langille. Timber harvest in Southeast Alaska consisted of individual handlogging operations up until the 1950s, focusing on lowlying areas and beach fringe areas. In the 1950s, in part to aid in Japanese recovery from World War II and these contracts were scheduled to last 50 years, and originally intended to complement independent sawlog operations in the region. However, the two conspired to drive log prices down, put smaller logging operations out of business. Ultimately, virtually all timber sales in the Tongass were purchased by one of two companies. In 1974, the KPC contract for Northern Prince of Wales was challenged by the Point Baker Association led by Alan Stein, Chuck Zieske and Herb Zieske. Federal District Court judge James von der Heydt ruled in their favor in December 1975 and March 1976, the suit threatened to halt clearcutting in the United States. In 1976, Congress removed the injunction in passing the National Forest Management Act, over half the old growth timber was removed there by the mid 1990s. Much of the power of these lay in the long-term contracts themselves. The contracts guaranteed low prices to the pulp companies — in some cases resulting in trees being given away for less than the price of a hamburger, the Tongass Timber Reform Act, enacted in 1990, significantly reshaped the logging industrys relationship with the Tongass National Forest. However, the Forest Service also conducts NEPA analyses, layout, and administrative operations to support these sales, and as such, logging operations are not the only deficit-run programs, however. High-grading has been prevalent in the Tongass throughout the era of industrial-scale logging there, for example, the forest type with the largest concentration of big trees—volume class 7—originally comprised only 4% of the forested portion of the Tongass, and over two-thirds of it has been logged. Other high-grading has concentrated on stands of Alaska cedar and red cedar, the karst terrain often produces large trees and has fewer muskeg bogs, and has also been preferentially logged
5.
United States National Forest
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National Forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands in the United States. The National Forest System was created by the Land Revision Act of 1891, abbot Kinney and forester Theodore Lukens were key spokesmen for the effort. In the United States there are 155 National Forests containing almost 190 million acres of land and these lands comprise 8.5 percent of the total land area of the United States, an area about the size of Texas. Some 87 percent of National Forest land lies west of the Mississippi River in the ranges of the Western United States. Alaska has 12 percent of all National Forest lands, the U. S. Forest Service also manages all of the United States National Grasslands, and around half of the United States National Recreation Areas. There are two different types of forests within the National Forest system. Those east of the Great Plains in the Midwestern and Eastern United States were primarily acquired by the government since 1891. The land had long been in the domain and sometimes repeatedly logged since colonial times. These are mostly lands that were kept in the domain, with the exception of inholdings. Land management of these areas focuses on conservation, timber harvesting, livestock grazing, watershed protection, wildlife, unlike national parks and other federal lands managed by the National Park Service, extraction of natural resources from national forests is permitted, and in many cases encouraged. National Forests are categorized by the U. S. as IUCN Category VI protected areas, however, the first-designated wilderness areas, and some of the largest, are on National Forest lands. There are management decision conflicts between conservationists and environmentalists, and natural resource extraction companies and lobbies, over the protection and/or use of National Forest lands, many ski resorts and summer resorts operate on leased land in National Forests
6.
Border
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Borders are geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as an internal administrative border, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are often open. Other borders are partially or fully controlled, and may be crossed only at designated border checkpoints. Mostly contentious, borders may even foster the setting up of buffer zones, a difference has also been established in academic scholarship between border and frontier, the latter denoting a state of mind rather than state boundaries. In the past, many borders were not clearly defined lines, instead there were often intervening areas often claimed, a special case in recent times was the neutral zones that were set up along parts of Saudi Arabias borders with Kuwait and Iraq. In modern times, marchlands have been replaced by clearly defined and demarcated borders, for the purposes of border control, airports and seaports are also classed as borders. Most countries have some form of control to regulate or limit the movement of people, animals. Some borders require presentation of legal paperwork like passports and visas, or other identity documents, moving goods across a border often requires the payment of excise tax, often collected by customs officials. Animals moving across borders may need to go into quarantine to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Most countries prohibit carrying illegal drugs or endangered animals across their borders, moving goods, animals, or people illegally across a border, without declaring them or seeking permission, or deliberately evading official inspection, constitutes smuggling. Controls on car liability insurance validity and other formalities may also take place, in places where smuggling, migration, and infiltration are a problem, many countries fortify borders with fences and barriers, and institute formal border control procedures. But some borders are merely signposted and this is common in countries within the European Schengen Area and on rural sections of the Canada–United States border. Borders may even be unmarked, typically in remote or forested regions. The frontiers were particularly porous for the movement of migrants. A border may have been, Agreed by the countries on both sides Imposed by the country on one side Imposed by third parties, e. g, in addition, a border may be a de facto military ceasefire line. Political borders are imposed on the world through human agency, political borders are often classified by whether or not they follow conspicuous physical features on the earth. Natural borders are geographical features that present natural obstacles to communication, existing political borders are often a formalization of these historical, natural obstacles. Some geographical features that often constitute natural borders are, Oceans, oceans create very costly natural borders, very few nation-states span more than one continent
7.
Coast Mountains
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The mountain ranges name derives from its proximity to the sea coast, and is often referred to as the Coast Range. The range includes volcanic and non-volcanic mountains and the ice fields of the Pacific and Boundary Ranges. The Coast Mountains are approximately 1,600 kilometres long and average 300 kilometres in width, covered in dense temperate rainforest on its western exposures, the range rises to heavily glaciated peaks, including the largest temperate-latitude ice fields in the world. On its eastern flanks, the tapers to the dry Interior Plateau. The Coast Mountains are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire—the ring of volcanoes, the Coast Mountains consists of three subdivisions known as the Pacific Ranges, the Kitimat Ranges, and the Boundary Ranges. The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains, included in this subdivision is four of the five major coastal icecaps in the southern Coast Mountains. These are the largest temperate-latitude icecaps in the world and fuel a number of major rivers, other than logging and a large ski resort at the resort town of Whistler, most of the land in the range is completely undeveloped. Mount Waddington, the highest mountain of the Coast Mountains, lies in the Waddington Range of the Pacific Ranges, just north of the Pacific Ranges lies the central subdivision known as the Kitimat Ranges. This subdivision extends from the Bella Coola River and Burke Channel in the south to the Nass River in the north, the third and northernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains is the Boundary Ranges, extending from the Nass River in the south to the Kelsall River in the north. This precipitation is among the heaviest in North America, the eastern slopes are relatively dry and less steep and protect the British Columbia Interior from the Pacific weather systems, resulting in dry warm summers and dry cold winters. Beyond the eastern slopes is a 154,635 km2 plateau occupying the southern, included within the Interior Plateau is a coalescing series of layered flood basalt lava flows. These sequences of fluid volcanic rock cover about 25,000 km2 of the Interior Plateau and have a volume of about 1,800 km3, the Coast Mountains consists of deformed igneous and metamorphosed structurally complex pre-Tertiary rocks. These originated in locations around the globe, the area is built of several different terranes of different ages with a broad range of tectonic origins. Further north the northwesterly structural trend of the Coast Mountains lies partly in a continental rift responsible for the creation of several volcanoes. These volcanoes form part of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province, the most volcanically active area in Canada, the first event began 130 million years ago when a group of active volcanic islands approached a pre-existing continental margin and coastline of North America. This subduction zone eventually jammed and shut down completely 115 million years ago, ending the Omineca Arc, compression resulting from this collision crushed, fractured and folded rocks along the old continental margin. The Insular Belt then welded onto the continental margin by magma that eventually cooled to create a large mass of igneous rock. This large mass of rock is the largest granite outcropping in North America
8.
Ketchikan, Alaska
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Ketchikan is a city in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States, the southeasternmost city in Alaska. With a population at the 2010 census of 8,050, it is the fifth-most populous city in the state, estimates put the 2014 population at 13,787 people. Ketchikan is located on Revillagigedo Island, so named in 1793 by Captain George Vancouver, Ketchikan is named after Ketchikan Creek, which flows through the town, emptying into the Tongass Narrows a short distance southeast of its downtown. Ketchikan comes from the Tlingit name for the creek, Kitschk-hin and it may mean the river belonging to Kitschk, other accounts claim it means Thundering Wings of an Eagle. In modern Tlingit this name is rendered as Kichx̱áan, Ketchikan Creek served as a summer fish camp for Tlingit natives for untold years before the town was established by Mike Martin in 1885. According to the U. S. Postal Service, one of Ketchikans two zip codes,99950, is the highest-numbered in the United States, Ketchikans economy is based upon government services, tourism and commercial fishing. Civic boosters have dubbed the community the Salmon Capital of the World, the Misty Fiords National Monument is one of the areas major attractions, and the Tongass National Forest has long been headquartered in Ketchikan, mostly in the citys historic Federal Building. For most of the half of the 20th century, a large portion of Ketchikans economy. The mill closed in 1997 in the wake of the passage of the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990, which reduced timber harvest targets in the national forest. Most of the totems at Saxman Totem Park and Totem Bight State Park are recarvings of older poles, the Totem Heritage Center displays preserved 19th-century poles rescued from abandoned village sites near Ketchikan. Ketchikan is located on Revillagigedo Island,700 miles north of Seattle, Washington and it is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, which is managed by the United States Forest Service from headquarters in the Ketchikan Federal Building downtown. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 5.9 square miles. 4.4 square miles of it is land and 1.5 square miles of it is water, the ½-mile wide channel called the Tongass Narrows separates Ketchikan from Gravina Island, where Ketchikan International Airport is located. Deer Mountain, a 3, 001-foot peak, rises immediately east of the downtown area. Ketchikan has a greatly modified and moderated by its maritime location. Winters are cool but far milder than its latitude alone may suggest, summers are mild, as August’s high averages 64.4 °F. Another feature of the climate is the high amount of rainfall, with an equivalent average of 153 inches per year, falling more heavily in autumn. Further east in North America, winters on these parallels are extremely cold, the record high temperature in Ketchikan was 89 °F on June 20,1958, and August 14,1977
9.
Puget Sound
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Puget Sound /ˈpjuːdʒɪt/ is a sound along the northwestern coast of the U. S. state of Washington, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. Flow through Deception Pass is approximately equal to 2% of the tidal exchange between Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Puget Sound extends approximately 100 miles from Deception Pass in the north to Olympia and its average depth is 450 feet and its maximum depth, off Point Jefferson between Indianola and Kingston, is 930 feet. The depth of the basin, between the southern tip of Whidbey Island and Tacoma, Washington, is approximately 600 feet. Since 2009, the term Salish Sea has been established by the United States Board on Geographic Names as the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Sometimes the terms Puget Sound and Puget Sound and adjacent waters are used for not only Puget Sound proper but also for waters to the north, such as Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands region. The term Puget Sound is used not just for the body of water, major cities on the sound include Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Everett, Washington. Puget Sound is also the second largest estuary in the United States, in 1792 George Vancouver gave the name Pugets Sound to the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows, in honor of Peter Puget, a Huguenot lieutenant accompanying him on the Vancouver Expedition. This name later came to be used for the north of Tacoma Narrows as well. The USGS defines Puget Sound as all the south of three entrances from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The main entrance at Admiralty Inlet is defined as a line between Point Wilson on the Olympic Peninsula, and Point Partridge on Whidbey Island. The second entrance is at Deception Pass along a line from West Point on Whidbey Island, to Deception Island, the third entrance is at the south end of the Swinomish Channel, which connects Skagit Bay and Padilla Bay. Under this definition, Puget Sound includes the waters of Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet, Possession Sound, Saratoga Passage and it does not include Bellingham Bay, Padilla Bay, the waters of the San Juan Islands or anything farther north. Another definition, given by NOAA, subdivides Puget Sound into five basins or regions, four of these correspond to areas within the USGS definition, but the fifth one, called Northern Puget Sound includes a large additional region. It is defined as bounded to the north by the boundary with Canada. Kruckeberg uses the term Puget Sound and adjacent waters, continental ice sheets have repeatedly advanced and retreated from the Puget Sound region. The most recent glacial period, called the Fraser Glaciation, had three phases, or stades. S. Since each new advance and retreat of ice erodes away much of the evidence of ice ages
10.
Washington (state)
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It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State or the State of Washington to distinguish it from Washington, Washington is the 18th largest state with an area of 71,362 square miles, and the 13th most populous state with over 7 million people. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the states highest elevation at almost 14,411 feet and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States. Washington is a leading lumber producer and its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, the Washington Territory was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. The area was part of a region called the Columbia District after the Columbia River. The area was renamed Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, Washington is the only U. S. state named after a president. To distinguish it from the U. S. capital, which is named for George Washington, Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State, or, in more formal contexts. Washingtonians and other residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the state simply as Washington, calling the nations capital Washington, D. C. or, often, Washington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. Washington is bordered by Oregon to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part, to the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state, from the Cascade Mountains westward, Western Washington has a mostly marine west coast climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range contains several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains, from the north to the south, these major volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state, is 50 miles south of the city of Seattle and it is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states. Western Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula and these deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental United States. Eastern Washington – the part of the state east of the Cascades – has a dry climate. It includes large areas of steppe and a few truly arid deserts lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades. Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, with annual rainfall increasing as one goes east to 21.2 inches in Pullman, the Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the northeastern quadrant of the state
