Columbia Basin
- Admiralty Inlet
- Comox Coast
- Discovery Islands
- East Sound
- Fraser Lowlands
- Gulf Islands
- Hood Canal
- Qualicum Coast
- San Juan Islands
- South Puget Sound
- South Vancouver Island
- Squamish
- Strait of Juan de Fuca
- Sunshine Coast
- West Sound
- Whidbey Basin
- Salish Sea References
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The Columbia Plateau is a Inland Bioregion to the East of the Salish Sea over the Cascade Crest, of dry forest and shrub steppe. It is geologically defined by the lava fields and post-glacial floods. Ecologically it is dryland, bordering on desert. Hydrologically it is fed by Rocky Mountain Headwaters collecting flows from the East Cascades, and then the Blue Mountains and Ochoco Mountains before flowing thorugh the Columbia Gorge into the Lower Columbia-Willamette Bioregion. The indigenous people were cyclic-nomadic horse people and have been concentrated on four large reservations: the Warm Springs, Yakima, Umatilla, Colville and Grand Ronde. Economically it is defined by cattle ranching, dryland wheat and irrigated Agriculture supported by intensive management of the water resources of the Columbia River. The Columbia River Hydroelectric Dams represent a network of energy infrastructure of national scale and importance. Spokane is the largest Urban areas.
