Great Plains

The Great Plains (Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located just to the east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. It is the western part of the Interior Plains, which also include the mixed grass prairie, the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau, and the Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains ecozones in Northern Canada. Great Plains or Western Plains is also used to describe the ecoregion of the Great Plains, or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains. The Great Plains lies across both Central United States and Western Canada, encompassing: Most or all of the U.S. states of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota; Eastern parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming; Parts of the U.S. states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas; Sometimes western parts of Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri; The southern portions of the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The term "Great Plains" usually refers specifically to the United States portion of the ecozone while the Canadian portion is known as the Canadian Prairies. In Canada it covers southeastern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan and a narrow band of southwestern Manitoba, these three provinces collectively known as the "Prairie Provinces". The western part of region is known for supporting extensive cattle-ranching and dryland farming. Grasslands are among the least protected biomes with vast areas having been converted for agricultural purposes and pastures. The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of human geography, referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains states. In Canada the term is rarely used; Natural Resources Canada, the government department responsible for official mapping, treats the Interior Plains as one unit consisting of several related plateaus and plains.