Taiga Plains

Average temperatures: from 6.5 to 14 C in summer and -26 C to -15 C in winter Landscape: mostly slow-growing conifer forests of black spruce with widespread permafrost; shrubs are well developed; upland areas support mixed forests (e.g., white and black spruce, tamarack) Wildlife: moose, woodland caribou, wood bison, wolf, black bear, marten, lynx, Arctic ground squirrel, barren ground caribou; birds include the common redpoll, gray jay, common raven, bald eagle, peregrine falcon and osprey Population: 21,400, 60 per cent of whom are Indigenous