Atlin Landscape

The landscape consists of coast mountains, icefields, and rivers with braided floodplains and is made up of wide valleys, tall mountains, rivers and streams created through glacial action. The Tagish Highlands are areas of transition between the west mountains and easterly Teslin plateaus. The plateaus are low areas and rolling hills. Between the valley floor and the highest mountains there is a difference of 5,000 feet in altitude. The geology contains rocks of a different origins spanning 500 million years with some of it being carried to the area by glaciers.

The low elevation areas (boreal whie and blacke spruce bio geoclimatic zone) consist of white spruce, sub-alpine fir, lodgepole pine, and aspen. Mid and upper slopes (spruce-willow-birch bio geoclimiatic zone) consist of spruce-fir forests. Subalpine areas have extensive areas of willow, birch, shrubs. Higher alpine areas (Alpine tundra bio geoclimatic zone) are more grass and are drier.

Atlin Lake is flat bottomed with fjord-like valleys leading to the Llewellyn Glacier. The east side of the glacier feeds a medium size lake that drains down to Atlin Lake along side Mt. Adam. The west side of the glacier consists of swift streams that flow over beds of quicksand and gravel and come together create a rapid river. The ice front rises gradually into the mountains leading backwards to the Taku Inlet and the Pacific coast.

The area is home grizzly and black bear, mountain goat, caribou, moose, Stone sheep, and various timber wolf populations. There are many small mammals such as hoary marmots, Arctic ground squirrels, pikas, beavers and river otters. Birds also inhabit the park area, such as the Arctic tern, blue-grouse, ruffed-grouse and the rock, willow and white-tailed ptarmigan.

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