Page "Columbia River" Paragraph 19

The World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF ) divides the waters of the Columbia and its tributaries into three freshwater ecoregions, naming them: Columbia Glaciated, Columbia Unglaciated, and Upper Snake.

The Columbia Glaciated ecoregion, making up about a third of the total watershed, lies in the north and was covered with ice sheets during the Pleistocene.

The ecoregion includes the mainstem Columbia north of the Snake River and tributaries such as the Yakima, Okanagan, Pend Oreille, Clark Fork, and Kootenay Rivers.

The effects of glaciation include a number of large lakes and a relatively low diversity of freshwater fish.

The Upper Snake ecoregion is defined as the Snake River watershed above Shoshone Falls, which totally blocks fish migration.

This region has 14 species of fish, many of which are endemic.

The Columbia Unglaciated ecoregion makes up the rest of the watershed.

It includes the mainstem Columbia below the Snake River and tributaries such as the Salmon, John Day, Deschutes, and lower Snake Rivers.

Of the three ecoregions it is the richest in terms of freshwater species diversity.

There are 35 species of fish, of which four are endemic.

There are also high levels of mollusk endemism.