Pacific Northwest: rich in resources: region sees mix of loss, gain in economic sectors during national recession.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: Geographic overview

The Pacific Northwest is a resource-rich region that occupies the northwest corner of the United States and southwestern part of Canada. The southeastern segment of Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia comprise the northern section of the region; Washington state, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and northern California represent the region's southern sector. The whole region is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. This article will focus on Alaska, Washington and Oregon, including the differences and similarities in their economies. It will also look at how their employment has fared over the last four years.

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HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

Historically, the Pacific Northwest was settled by Native Americans about 15,000 years ago. European explorers followed from the 1500s to the 1700s, discovering Oregon and Washington. Among them ate the legendary explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who completed their expedition to Washington in the 1800s.

The Pacific Northwest has a number of distinctive geographic features. It contains two large mountain ranges: the Cascade Range, which stretches from southern Alaska to northern California, and the Coast Range, which extends from southwest Yukon through Canada and the Alaska panhandle, and is nearer the coast. The highest mountain in the Northwest area is the 14,410-foot-tall Mount Rainier. Other sizeable mountains include Mount Shasta, at 14,160 feet, and Mount Baker, which tops 10,700 feet.

Other geographic elements of the Pacific Northwest include the Columbia Plateau, a high area of land that stretches east to the Rocky Mountains in Idaho and Montana. There are also the magnificent Olympic Mountains in Washington and Puget Sound, a compilation of bays and straits in northwestern Washington and southeastern British Columbia. Manifold rivers twist throughout the region, including the Fraser, Columbia and Snake, all of which are the result of the region's considerably wet climate.

Average annual precipitation in most places west of the Cascades is more than 30 inches. However, the western slopes of the Olympic and Coast mountain ranges typically receive about 118 inches per year, with some locations on the Olympic Peninsula exceeding 200 inches annually. East of the Cascades, the climate features more sunshine and drier conditions, with some places receiving as little as 7 inches of rain.

ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

Alaska conducts a great deal of business with Washington and Oregon, but the economies ate different. The volume of business has become less significant than it used to be because those economies have grown, according to Neal Fried, an economist with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research and Analysis Section. This last recession is a good example of just how...