Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregion and Birding Sites Click to see
a detailed map with birding sites. This ecoregion includes most
of the Olympic Peninsula (but not its northern and eastern
coastal plain), the lowlands of the Chehalis River drainage and
around Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay, the Willapa Hills, and
coastal waters out to three miles offshore on the outer coast
and out to the international boundary on the Strait of Juan de
Fuca west of the mouth of the Twin Rivers. It is bordered on the
east by the Puget Trough lowlands, and on the south by the
Columbia River. The ecoregion itself extends north to Vancouver
Island and south through much of the Coast Ranges of Oregon.
Elevated areas vary from the highly dissected peaks and valleys
of the Olympics, pushed up well above 7,500 feet by colliding
tectonic plates, to the much lower, rounded, and more recent
Willapa Hills, also uplifted from volcanic activity in the sea-a
process that continues today. Extensive coastal lowlands with
sedimentary marine and g