Blue River is a small community in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, situated on the Yellowhead Highway

Yellowhead Highway

The Yellowhead Highway is a major east-west highway connecting the four western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Although part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, the highway should not be confused with the more southerly, originally-designated...

 about halfway between Kamloops and Jasper, Alberta

Jasper, Alberta

Jasper is a specialized municipality in western Alberta, Canada. It is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park, located in the Canadian Rockies in the Athabasca River valley....

, located at the confluence of the Blue and North Thompson Rivers. It currently has 260 residents. The local economy is supported by logging, tourism and transportation industries.

Geography

Blue River lies in a wide, gravelly part of the North Thompson River valley. Its podzolic soil

Soil

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

s are strongly acidic and coarse, with abundant sand, gravel and stones. Drainage is not as rapid as would be expected from the soils' coarse texture because the subsoils tend to be cemented.

The forests and mountains around Blue River have plentiful big game

Big game hunting

Big game hunting is the hunting of large game. The term is historically associated with the hunting of Africa's Big Five game , and with tigers and rhinos on the Indian subcontinent. In North America, animals such as bears and bison were hunted...

 such as deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, moose

Moose

The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, black bear

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

, grizzly bear

Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...

, and caribou. Bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s include osprey

Osprey

The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...

, eagle

Eagle

Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...

, woodpecker

Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....

 and raven

Raven

Raven is the common name given to several larger-bodied members of the genus Corvus—but in Europe and North America the Common Raven is normally implied...

. The mountain pine beetle

Mountain pine beetle

The mountain pine beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae, is a species of bark beetle native to the forests of western North America from Mexico to central British Columbia. It has a hard black exoskeleton, and measures about 5 millimeters, about the size of a grain of rice.Mountain pine beetles inhabit...

 has become the area's most significant insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

.

Lodgepole pine

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta, also known as Shore Pine, is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.-Subspecies:...

 is the most common tree at Blue River, although its population has been severely reduced by the mountain pine beetle. Other common native conifers are Douglas-fir

Douglas-fir

Douglas-fir is one of the English common names for evergreen coniferous trees of the genus Pseudotsuga in the family Pinaceae. Other common names include Douglas tree, and Oregon pine. There are five species, two in western North America, one in Mexico, and two in eastern Asia...

, Englemann spruce, subalpine fir

Subalpine Fir

The Subalpine Fir or Rocky Mountain Fir is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of Yukon, British Columbia and western Alberta in Canada; southeastern Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, northeastern Nevada, and the...

, western hemlock

Western Hemlock

Tsuga heterophylla. the Western Hemlock, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Sonoma County, California.-Habitat:...

 and western red cedar. Among deciduous trees, the black cottonwood

Balsam poplar

The balsam poplars — also known as Populus sect. Tacamahaca — are a group of about 10 species of poplars, indigenous to North America and eastern Asia, distinguished by the balsam scent of their buds, the whitish undersides of their leaves, and the leaf petiole being round in cross-section...

 is largest; trembling aspen

Trembling aspen

Trembling aspen is the popular name for either*Populus tremuloides *Populus tremula...

 and paper birch

Paper Birch

Betula papyrifera is a species of birch native to northern North America.-Description:...

 are also prominent. Non-native trees which may be seen in Blue River include green ash

Green Ash

Fraxinus pennsylvanica is a species of ash native to eastern and central North America, from Nova Scotia west to southeastern Alberta and eastern Colorado, south to northern Florida, and southwest to eastern Texas....

, littleleaf linden

Tilia cordata

Tilia cordata is a species of Tilia native to much of Europe and western Asia, north to southern Great Britain , central Scandinavia, east to central Russia, and south to central Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, and the Caucasus; in the south of its range it is restricted to...

, silver maple

Silver Maple

The silver maple —also called creek maple, river maple, silverleaf maple, soft maple, water maple, or white maple—is a species of maple native to eastern North America in the eastern United States and Canada...

, and Norway maple

Norway Maple

Acer platanoides is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and southwest Asia, from France east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran....

. Sugar maple

Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum is a species of maple native to the hardwood forests of northeastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario, and south to Georgia and Texas...

, burr oak

Burr Oak

Burr Oak is a variant spelling of Bur oak . The term can refer to some places in the United States:*Burr Oak, Indiana*Burr Oak, Iowa*Burr Oak, Kansas*Burr Oak, Michigan*Burr Oak Township, Michigan*Burr Oak, Missouri...

, northern red oak

Northern Red Oak

Quercus rubra, commonly called northern red oak or champion oak, , is an oak in the red oak group . It is a native of North America, in the northeastern United States and southeast Canada...

 and butternut

Butternut

Butternut may refer to:*Butternut tree, Juglans cinerea, or its fruit*Butternut squash, an edible winter squash.*Butternut, a shade of yellow similar to khaki and the color of the butternut squash...

 formerly thrived at the CNR Gardens.

Climate

Blue River has a continental climate

Continental climate

Continental climate is a climate characterized by important annual variation in temperature due to the lack of significant bodies of water nearby...

 which is subject to frequent modification by maritime air masses from the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. The area is part of a "wet belt" which occupies part of eastern British Columbia. Heavy snow falls over almost every winter, in which temperatures stay close to the freezing point when maritime air dominates. The most severe cold spells may send thermometer readings below -40°C/F. Rain is frequent in other seasons. Summer days are warm or occasionally hot, with thunderstorms often spawning over the nearby mountains.