This park's diverse topography ranges from the beautiful alpine meadows to tall cedar forests growing in steep valleys, with numerous lakes and wetlands and a variety of wildlife.
At 113,469 hectares, Cariboo Mountains Park is a key link between Bowron Lakes Park and Wells Gray Provincial Park, which altogether create a 760,000 hectares of protected area. This means that the majestic old growth cedar forests, unique ancient interior rainforest and wetlands of this area are extensive enough to support large wildlife populations as they move between the three parks and ensure the wildlife in this region have a better chance of survival as unprotected wilderness habitat rapidly disappears in other parts of British Columbia.
Most importantly, the park protects critical habitat for a complex and important predator-prey system including various species such as grizzly bear, black bear, moose, lynx, wolf, mountain goat, waterfowl and the rare mountain caribou, whose conservation status recently deteriorated to threatened, or red-listed. Vulnerable (blue-listed) species found in the park include grizzly bear and bull trout. The park incorporates one of the largest populations of grizzlies in British Columbia's interior.
This region also protects important rainbow trout, lake trout, and Dolly Varden habitat, while the rivers and tributaries that drain into Quesnel Lake support one of the province's largest sockeye salmon runs. A key feature of the park is also its protection of old growth spruce, red cedar, subalpine fir, and hemlock forests.
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