Habitat Types

When scientists study birds, plants, mammals and just about any life in an ecosystem, they must organize the landscape into divisions so they may better understand the behavior and needs of their study group.

Would you divide up a landscape into: meadows, forests, mountains, glaciers? Or would you classify a landscape into: rivers, lakes, forests, deserts, tundra?

Researchers seek to organize landscapes, but they may make a few more distinctions. Before they classify, they ask the following questions: How is the landscape naturally divided? What is the dominate tree and shrub in each natural division? How much water does each area receive? What is the climate and does it vary considerably? They also research the history of habitat classifications to get help from previous researchers of the study area. Yes, it seems like a lot of work, but afterward many different studies can be performed—like bird inventorying.

Researchers at North Cascades who counted birds in 2001 classified habitats into 20 general types.

Open habitats:
1) Rock
2) Snow
3) Heather
4) Meadow

Sparsely forested habitats:
5) Douglas-Fir (east of crest of the Cascades Range)
6) Mountain Hemlock
7) Lodgepole Pine
8) Subalpine Fir
9) Ponderosa Pine
10) Subalpine Larch

Densely forested habitats:
11) Douglas-Fir (west of crest)
12) Western Hemlock
13) Pacific Silver Fir
14) Western Redcedar
15) Engelmann Spruce
16) Big-leaf Maple
17) Hardwood Mix
18) Red Alder
19) Conifer/Deciduous Mix

Shrub habitats:
20) Shrub

Go to North Cascades Nomads