Temperate Rainforest

forest · water · ecosystem

Drenched all year. Temperate rainforests get dumped on with rain or mist almost every day, sometimes 200 inches per year. That's way more water than most forests get.

Cozy for conifers. These forests are packed with tall trees like spruce, hemlock, and fir that love cool, wet weather. Their needles shed water like tiny umbrellas.

Both evergreen and leafy. Unlike tropical rainforests, temperate rainforests have a mix of trees that keep their needles year-round and trees that drop leaves in winter.

Wildlife wonderland. Bears, elk, salmon, eagles, and owls thrive here because the wet climate creates tons of food and shelter for animals.

Rare and precious. Temperate rainforests cover only about 0.3 percent of Earth's land, making them one of the world's most special and threatened ecosystems.