Canada has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing a land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is to the northeast with a shared border on Hans Island. To the southeast Canada shares a maritime boundary with France's overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the last vestige of New France. By total area, Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, however, Canada ranks fourth, the difference being due to it having the world's largest proportion of fresh water lakes. Of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories, only two are landlocked while the other eleven all directly border one of three oceans.
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and the steppe of Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the lower and mid-latitude of the area referred to as the Interior Plains of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, hillier land to the east. From west to east, generally the drier expanse of shortgrass prairie gives way to mixed grass prairie and ultimately the richer soils of the tallgrass prairie.
The Coteau des Prairies is a plateau approximately 200 miles in length and 100 miles in width, rising from the prairie flatlands in eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and northwestern Iowa in the United States. The southeast portion of the Coteau comprises one of the distinct regions of Minnesota, known as Buffalo Ridge. The tip of the feature starts in extreme south North Dakota.
The Chase Lake Prairie Project is considered the "National Flagship Project" of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). The goal is to rehabilitate 5,500,000 acres (2,200,000 ha) of wetland around Chase Lake on the Missouri Coteau. The project was dedicated in September 1989.
The Prairie Pothole Region is an expansive area of the northern Great Plains that contains thousands of shallow wetlands known as potholes. These potholes are the result of glacier activity in the Wisconsin glaciation, which ended about 10,000 years ago. The decaying ice sheet left behind depressions formed by the uneven deposition of till in ground moraines. These depressions are called potholes, glacial potholes, kettles, or kettle lakes. They fill with water in the spring, creating wetlands, which range in duration from temporary to semi-permanent. The region covers an area of about 800,000 sq. km and expands across three Canadian provinces and five U.S. states. The hydrology of the wetlands is variable, which results in long term productivity and biodiversity. The PPR is a prime spot during breeding and nesting season for millions of migrating waterfowl.
The Drift Prairie is a geographic region in the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota.
The geology of Minnesota comprises the rock, minerals, and soils of the U.S. state of Minnesota, including their formation, development, distribution, and condition.
The Cottonwood River is a tributary of the Minnesota River, 152 miles (245 km) long, in southwestern Minnesota in the United States. Via the Minnesota River, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 1,313 square miles (3,400 km2) in an agricultural region. The river's name is a translation of the Dakota name for the river, Wáǧa Ožú Wakpá, for the cottonwood tree groves, which are common along prairie rivers. It has also been known historically as the Big Cottonwood River.
South Dakota is a state located in the north-central United States. It is usually considered to be in the Midwestern region of the country. The state can generally be divided into three geographic regions: eastern South Dakota, western South Dakota, and the Black Hills. Eastern South Dakota is lower in elevation and higher in precipitation than the western part of the state, and the Black Hills are a low, isolated mountain group in the southwestern corner of the state. Smaller sub-regions in the state include the Coteau des Prairies, Missouri Coteau, James River Valley, and the Dissected Till Plains. Geologic formations in South Dakota range in age from two billion-year-old Precambrian granite in the Black Hills to glacial till deposited over the last few million years. South Dakota is the 17th-largest state in the country.
The geology of Saskatchewan can be divided into two main geological regions, the Precambrian Canadian Shield and the Phanerozoic Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Within the Precambrian shield exists the Athabasca sedimentary basin. Meteorite impacts have altered the natural geological formation processes. The prairies were most recently affected by glacial events in the Quaternary period.
Long Lake Wetland Management District encompasses three counties in south-central North Dakota, an area famed for its wealth of waterfowl-producing potholes and native prairie grasslands. Headquarters for the Wetland Management District is located in the Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge office near Moffit, North Dakota, which is about 35 miles southeast of Bismarck. Topographical landforms of the area include Missouri Coteau and Missouri River Slope. Precipitation averages just under 16 inches per year. Approximately 68 percent of the land in the three county area remains virgin sod - native mixed-grass prairie. The dominant land use is cattle grazing. The Coteau wetlands found in the northeastern portion of the Wetland Management District are classic prairie potholes of various sizes and types that are prime duck production habitat. These areas, when wet, are very productive. Soils in this area are generally deep and quite productive. Due to the rolling nature of the landscape on the Coteau, a lot of the land is also characterized as highly erodible. Conversely, many of the wetlands on Missouri River Slope portion of the Wetland Management District are large semi-permanent and permanent alkali wetlands. There are 21 wetland sites on the Missouri River Slope that have a history of periodic avian botulism outbreaks. These areas occasionally present localized problems for significant numbers of migratory birds. Soils on the Missouri River Slope are characteristically shallow with high proportions of sand and gravel. Much of the land is highly erodible. Since 1985, substantial land acreage in the three county area that was once farmed has been retired to Conservation Reserve Program grasslands. The program has assisted in restoring waterfowl populations for many species in the Wetland Management District which exceed the highest level ever recorded since surveys began.
Métis buffalo hunting began on the North American plains in the late 1700s and continued until 1878. The great buffalo hunts were subsistence, political, economic, and military operations for Métis families and communities living in the region. At the height of the buffalo hunt era, there were two major hunt seasons: summer and autumn. These hunts were highly organized, with an elected council to lead the expedition. This made sure the process was fair and all families were well-fed and provided for throughout the year.
The Battle of Grand Coteau, or the Battle of Grand Coteau du Missouri, was fought between Métis buffalo hunters of Red River and the Sioux in what is now North Dakota between July 13 and 14, 1851. The Métis won the battle, the last major one between the two groups.
The Canadian Aspen Forests and Parklands is one of 844 terrestrial ecoregions defined by One Earth. This ecoregion includes parts of the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, north-central and eastern North Dakota, most of east South Dakota, and north-central Nebraska in the American Great Plains. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines this ecoregion as the Northern Glaciated Plains.
Lake Jordan was a glacial lake formed during the late Pleistocene along the Jordan River. After the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated, water melting off the glacier accumulated between the Rocky Mountains and the ice sheet. The lake drained along the front of the ice sheet, eastward towards the Yellowstone River and Glacial Lake Glendive.
Lake Circle was a glacial lake that formed during the late Pleistocene epoch along the Redwater River in eastern Montana. After the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated, glacial ice melt accumulated in the basin surrounded by the ridges of the preglacial valley and the retreating glacier. Southwest of Nickwall are the remnants of a broad abandoned valley with long side slopes. The valley runs north from Redwater Creek to the Missouri River. The bottom is poorly drained and about 1 mile (1.6 km) in width. It lies 2,015 to 2,020 feet above the sea level and 40 to 50 feet above the Missouri River bottomland. The upland slopes are extensive, clear and flat. The valleys surrounding it are dissected with V-shaped coulees. The difference between the Redwater valley and those around it reflect stream erosion vs. lake sedimentation. The drift in the valleys, appears to be as left by the glacier in the previously created valleys. Using the dating of lake deposits near Great Falls, Montana, the Havre lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet dammed the ancestral Missouri River during the late Wisconsin Glacial Period.
Moose Mountain Upland, Moose Mountain Uplands, or commonly Moose Mountain, is a hilly plateau located in the south-east corner of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, that covers an area of about 13,000 square kilometres (5,000 sq mi). The upland rises about 200 metres (660 ft) above the broad, flat prairie which is about 600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level. The highest peak is "Moose Mountain" at 830 metres (2,720 ft) above sea level. The upland was named Moose Mountain because of the large number of moose that lived in the area. When it was originally used by fur traders, Métis, and the Indigenous peoples, the plateau was called Montagne a la Bosse, which is French for "The Mountain of the Bump or Knob".
Pipestone Creek is a river in the Souris River watershed. Its flow begins in southeastern Saskatchewan, just south of the town of Grenfell and travels in a southeastern direction into Manitoba in the Westman Region where it empties into Oak Lake through the Oak Lake Marsh.
Wood Mountain Hills are a hilly plateau in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The hills are located in the southern part of the province and are part of the Missouri Coteau, which is part of the Laurentian Divide between the watersheds of the Hudson Bay drainage basin of the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico of the Atlantic Ocean. The hills are in a semi-arid region known as Palliser's Triangle in the Great Plains ecoregion of North America.
