The North & Central Interior

Remote wilderness on a grand scale

This remote, sparsely populated, and almost incomprehensibly vast region covers nearly two-thirds of the province.

Our work in the North and Central Interior is dedicated to protecting biodiversity at the landscape level. We prioritize corridors connecting the habitats of rare and endangered species. We’ve protected 49 conservation areas here, encompassing 12,180 acres.

About the North

Dense rainforests and steep granite peaks

Where the Skeena River empties into the Pacific, dense rainforests border long fjords surrounded by steep granite peaks. Inland are rugged coastal mountains capped by large icefields and glaciers, dotted with hundreds of sparkling clear lakes and rivers teeming with salmon.

A vast and varied wilderness

The forests here are filled with subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, sub-boreal spruce, mountain and western hemlock, and western redcedar. Grizzly bears, mountain goats, beavers, wolverines, Arctic ground squirrels, osprey, kingfishers, and loons thrive in this varied wilderness.

The Serengeti of the North

To the northeast, the northern Rocky Mountains give way to the Peace River Basin and Canada’s boreal forest. With its abundant wildlife supporting apex predators like wolves and bears, this area has been called the Serengeti of the North.

The Central Interior

In the Central Interior, the Cariboo and Omineca feature alpine peaks, rolling plateaus covered in grasslands and pine forests, and the headwaters of the Fraser River. The expansive, diverse landscapes here offer refuge to mammals such as moose, cougar, woodland caribou, bighorn sheep, mule deer, mountain goats, grizzly bears, and wolverines, and to birds such as grebes, dabbling ducks and shorebirds. Sandhill cranes and white pelicans breed in the wetlands.

Explore the North & Central Interior

Visit Cold Fish Lake

We protect 203 acres around Cold Fish Lake, which we’ve leased to the province as part of a provincial park. It sits inside Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park, in the Skeena Mountains and one of Canada’s largest parks. If you enjoy solitude, backcountry hiking in rugged wilderness, and exceptional views, the Spatsizi Plateau is worth the visit.

Cold Fish lake is home to caribou, grizzly, black bears, wolves, beavers, and arctic ground squirrels, along with at least 140 bird species, including gyrfalcons, Smith’s longspurs, and American golden plovers.

On the Ground: Cranberry Marsh - West

We initiated a wetland restoration project in 2025, in partnership with Simpcw Resources Group and the Province of BC, to mitigate previous channelling of the waterway through the conservation area. Eleven beaver dam analogs and five post assisted log structures were installed to retain water in the wet meadow. We plan to plant a variety of native vegetation (trees and shrubs) here in 2026.

A forest of international importance

As you leave the Rocky Mountains in northern BC and head east, you’ll come upon the start of the boreal forest. This is Canada’s largest vegetation zone, stretching from Yukon through northern BC, and eastward all the way to Newfoundland. But it’s more than that: It’s the world’s largest land ecosystem, stretching around the globe through Scandinavia and northern Russia, where it’s called the taiga.

The boreal forest is a vital buffer against climate change due to the enormous amount of carbon it stores. Moose, deer, wood bison, and woodland caribou are among the animals that rely on this biome.

Carleton MacNaughton

Interior and Coastal Mainland Conservation Land Manager

Carleton has worked in conservation land management with NTBC since 1998. He oversees management of our conservation holdings in the South Coast, Cariboo, Omineca, Skeena, and Peace regions. Originally from the southern Okanagan Valley, Carleton loves hiking and camping in the great outdoors.

Carleton has a Master of Science in Environment and Management from Royal Roads University in Victoria, where he also completed his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, and an Environmental Technology Diploma from Camosun College.

Our partners in the North & Central Interior

We gratefully acknowledge that our Vancouver office is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, who have been stewarding this land since time immemorial. Our work and conservation areas encompass many lands throughout the province, and we humbly acknowledge the First Nations communities who live on and steward these lands.