The White Spine

Geography

The White Spine range consists of three subdivisions known as the Dagger Ranges, the Otomot Ranges, and the Krish Ranges. The Dagger Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the White Spine Mountains, extending from the lower stretches of the Daggerborne River to Venture Bay. Included in this subdivision is four of the five major coastal icecaps in the southern White Spine Mountains. These are the largest temperate-latitude icecaps in the shard and fuel a number of major rivers. Other than logging and a large hunting hall, most of the land in the range is completely undeveloped. Mount Nanoc, the highest mountain of the White Spine Mountains, lies in the Otamot Range. Just north of the Otamot Ranges lies the central subdivision known as the Krish Ranges. This subdivision extends from the Bein Hassa River and Halbred River to the Nass River in the north.
The mountain range has a profound effect on Utara's climate by forcing moisture-laden air off the Arin Sea to rise, dropping heavy rainfalls on the eastern slopes where lush forests exist. This precipitation is among the heaviest in Dayne. The western slopes are relatively dry and less steep and protect the kingdoms interiors from the ocean weather systems, resulting in dry warm summers and dry cold winters.
Beyond the western slopes is a 154,635 km2 (59,705 sq mi) plateau occupying the southern and central portions of White Spine called the Interior Spire. Included within the Interior Spire is a coalescing series of layered flood basalt lava flows. These sequences of fluid volcanic rock cover about 25,000 km2 (9,700 sq mi) of the Interior Spire and have a volume of about 400 miles, forming a large volcanic plateau constructed atop of the Interior Spire. North of it on the range's northeastern slopes lies a huge mountainous area known by geographers as the Interior Spire Ranges.

Ecosystem

Normally summer daytime temperatures can range from 50° F to 80° F. The weather is usually dry and sunny. Nighttime temperatures relate to how warm it has been during the day where expectation can be that if it is 70° F during that day, it could be fairly cool at night. Typically, the days are warm and sunny and the nights are pleasant. Winters are especially harsh, but manageable in the White Spine area.
“Weather is what you get; climate is what you expect” is an old saying that shows how unpredictable the weather can really be. Over the course of more than twenty years, the White Spine ranges has had less than a handful of trips where the weather has been either rainy or cold. For this reason, Lately, it has been observed that uncertain weather has caused severe cold spells and high winds at the elevated peaks of the area.

Fauna & Flora

Plants and trees have adapted to an extreme climate and a thin layer of useful soil. Although, Black and White Spruce are the most common tree species, others include Jack Pine, Tamarack, Paper Birch, Trembling Aspen, and Balsam Poplar. Willows and alders are the most common shrubs. Lichens, which provide food for caribou, join mosses and heaths such as Labrador Tea and berry-laden plants such as cranberries and blueberries to provide a dense ground cover throughout the region. Flowers abound throughout the season with the most prolific displays in the spring and early summer with clusters of frozen lupine, moss campion, mountain avens, fireweed, river beauty, sweat pea and twin flowers. The high level of conifer forest makes the regions vulnerable to fire. The fires cause a release of nutrients that release and germinate the seeds of the Black Spruce and Jack Pine.
The small level of diversity found in the ecosystems provide habitat for a surprisingly diverse number of birds and mammals. Mammals range from the large land animals including the barrenland and woodland caribou, brown and black bears, yeti, moose, direwolf and muskox to the smaller varieties of red fox, wolverine, lynx, ermine, lor hare and utara ground squirrel or sicsic. Birds are abundant although the birds such as thrushes, kingfishers, robins and other songbirds, and the ground birds like grouse and ptarmigan are sometimes hard to spot. The large birds of prey such as the golden and bald eagles, roc, osprey, goshawk, peregrine and utaran falcons are seen most often of any birds. Jaegers, ravens, arctic terns, gulls do spend time over the rivers. Shore birds including plovers and sandpipers, and loons, eiders and mergansers are evident in most regions. The larger birds such as Nor'hold Crane, Snow Geese, and Trumpeter and Sever Swan appear for us at opportune times but are more rare.
Fish stocks include salmon, utaran char, bull trout, dolly varden, lake trout, pike, inconnu, whitefish and  grayling.

Natural Resources

Great mineral wealth has come from the margins of the mountains. Former sites include the Undar Beach copper mine near Nor'hold; gold mines along Krish Ranges. the Anyox copper mine and smelter on Nordlog Inlet and the Grand copper mine near the southern Spine's edge, another in the Daggerborne River area and a granite quarry near Lor.
Logging is extensive along accessible regions of the coast; logs are boomed or barged great distances to tidewater mills. Pulp mills operate at Lor and Nordlog and formerly at Sever. The entire White Spine region feeds a huge pulp and paper complex near the capitol. The west side of the mountains are much drier and more accessible, and logging has become extensive in lower-elevation spruce-pine-fir forests.

History

Numerous Utaran tribes and clan peoples have long inhabited the edges of the mountains. Roads now cross mountains at eight points, including the famed Trade Lane that runs from Norhold to Northport. Among the first peoples thought to have visited the region were sailors from Pallidon.
During this time, multiple individuals from both Pallidon and Alteria made substantial oversea expeditions throughout the Utara continent, to include the White Spine mountain range. tIn nearly every account from these explorations, it was noted that wild residents had lived in the region for at least a millennia before their arrival. It was also noted that these hostile people would mass and force the exit of these new explorers. Over several centuries, theexperience

Type

Mountain Range

Owning Organization

Kingdom of Utara