Pacific Slope

Image:NorthAmerica-WaterDivides.png (red line) in North and Central America.]]

The Pacific Slope describes geographic regions in North American, Central American, and South American countries that are west of the continental divide and slope down to the Pacific Ocean. In North America, the Rocky Mountains mark the eastern border of the Pacific Slope. In Central and South America, the region is much narrower, confined by the Sierra Madre Occidental in Central America,{{cite book |title=Resources of the Pacific Slope|url=https://archive.org/details/100688472|first=John Ross |last=Browne |year=1869 |location=San Francisco |publisher=H. H. Bancroft and Company}}{{cite journal|title=Meteorology on the Pacific Slope |author=Richard, Jerome S. |publisher=Popular Astronomy|volume= 16 |pages=92–98 |date=February 1908}} and by the Andes in South America.{{cite web |title=South America - A Continent of Extreme Contrasts |url=http://www.fishchannel.com/freshwater-aquariums/species-info/cichlid/south-america-extreme-contrasts.aspx |first=Wayne |last=Leibel |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711004307/http://www.fishchannel.com/freshwater-aquariums/species-info/cichlid/south-america-extreme-contrasts.aspx |archivedate=2011-07-11 }} The phrase is still used today mostly for scientific purposes to refer to regions inhabited by specific species.{{cite journal | journal=The Cutting Edge |volume=VI |number=1 |date=January 1999 |title=The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. An ordinal classification for the families of flowering plants |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden |pages= 531–553}}{{cite journal |url=http://www.pnas.org/content/104/25/10530.full |title=Divergent ecological effects of oceanographic anomalies on terrestrial ecosystems of the Mexican Pacific coast |author1=Margarita Caso |author2=Charlotte González-Abraham |author3=Exequiel Ezcurra |publisher=University of New Mexico |location=Albuquerque, NM |date=May 17, 2007 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924143917/http://www.pnas.org/content/104/25/10530.full |archivedate=September 24, 2015 }}

It was and is still occasionally used to describe the region in North America during the 19th century and the expansion of the Old West. It includes the states and territories west of the continental divide that runs down the Rocky Mountains in North America. This included the territories and the states that emerged from them, including California, Oregon Territory, Washington Territory, Nevada Territory, Idaho Territory, Colorado Territory, and Utah Territory. The region is drained by the Columbia, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Colorado River systems.{{cite AV media |url=https://archive.org/details/Riversof1947 |title=Rivers of the Pacific Slope |date=1947 |publisher=Coronet Instructional Films |type=film |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205141615/https://archive.org/details/Riversof1947 |archivedate=2016-02-05 }}{{Cite book | last1 = Pomeroy | first1 = Earl | authorlink = Earl S. Pomeroy| title = The Pacific Slope: a History of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada | year = 2003 | publisher = University of Nevada Press | location = Reno | isbn = 978-0-87417-518-9 | pages = 488 }} In the United States, the Pacific-slope flycatcher takes its name from the region it inhabits.

In Central America, it includes the mountain and coastal regions west of the Continental Divide in Mexico and southern Guatemala, southwestern Honduras, western Nicaragua, and western/southwestern Costa Rica, and southern Panama. In Guatemala, the Pacific Slope region is a humid plain of fertile land divided into widespread plantations (fincas) that grow abundant crops including sugarcane, bananas, and rubber.{{cite web |url=http://www.letsgo.com/maps/central-america/guatemala/pacific-slope/#ixzz1GG1P8BXP |title=Map of Pacific Slope |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716201457/http://www.letsgo.com/maps/central-america/guatemala/pacific-slope#ixzz1GG1P8BXP |archivedate=2012-07-16 }} In Costa Rica, the Pacific Slope refers to the region west of the continental divide at Monteverde, Costa Rica.{{Cite book | last1 = Savage | first1 = Jay Mathers. | title = The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica : a Herpetofauna Between Two Continents, Between Two Seas | year = 2002 | publisher = University of Chicago Press | location = Chicago | isbn = 978-0-226-73537-5 | pages = 954 | url = https://archive.org/details/amphibiansreptil0000sava | url-access = registration }}

In South America, the Pacific Slope is the narrow region west of the highest points of the Andes, including western Colombia, central Ecuador, western and southwestern Peru, and eastern Chile.