1.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
2.
Alberta
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Alberta is a western province of Canada. With an estimated population of 4,196,457 as of July 1,2015, it is Canadas fourth-most populous province and its area is about 660,000 square kilometres. Alberta and its neighbour Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories until they were established as provinces on September 1,1905, the premier has been Rachel Notley since May 2015. Alberta is bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U. S. state of Montana to the south. Alberta is one of three Canadian provinces and territories to only a single U. S. state and one of only two landlocked provinces. About 290 km south of the capital is Calgary, the largest city in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton centre Albertas two census metropolitan areas, both of which have populations exceeding one million, while the province has 16 census agglomerations. Tourist destinations in the province include Banff, Canmore, Drumheller, Jasper, Alberta is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Victoria, Queen of Canada, and Albert, Prince Consort. Princess Louise was the wife of John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, Lake Louise and Mount Alberta were also named in her honour. Alberta, with an area of 661,848 km2, is the fourth largest province after Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. To the south, the borders on the 49th parallel north, separating it from the US state of Montana. The province extends 1,223 km north to south and 660 km east to west at its maximum width, with the exception of the semi-arid steppe of the south-eastern section, the province has adequate water resources. There are numerous rivers and lakes used for swimming, fishing, there are three large lakes, Lake Claire in Wood Buffalo National Park, Lesser Slave Lake, and Lake Athabasca which lies in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. The longest river in the province is the Athabasca River which travels 1,538 km from the Columbia Icefield in the Rocky Mountains to Lake Athabasca, the largest river is the Peace River with an average flow of 2161 m3/s. The Peace River originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows through northern Alberta and into the Slave River, Albertas capital city, Edmonton, is located approximately in the geographic centre of the province. It is the most northerly city in Canada, and serves as a gateway. The region, with its proximity to Canadas largest oil fields, has most of western Canadas oil refinery capacity, Calgary is located approximately 280 km south of Edmonton and 240 km north of Montana, surrounded by extensive ranching country. Almost 75% of the population lives in the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. The land grant policy to the served as a means to populate the province in its early years
3.
Saskatchewan
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Saskatchewan is a prairie and boreal province in west-central Canada, the only province without natural borders. It has an area of 651,900 square kilometres, nearly 10 percent of which is water, composed mostly of rivers, reservoirs. As of December 2013, Saskatchewans population was estimated at 1,114,170, residents primarily live in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern boreal half is mostly forested and sparsely populated. Of the total population, roughly half live in the provinces largest city, Saskatoon, or the provincial capital, other notable cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, North Battleford, and the border city Lloydminster. Saskatchewan is a province with large distances to moderating bodies of waters. As a result, its climate is continental, rendering severe winters throughout the province. Southern areas have very warm or hot summers, Midale and Yellow Grass near the U. S. border are tied for the highest ever recorded temperatures in Canada with 45 °C observed at both locations on July 5,1937. In winter, temperatures below −45 °C are possible even in the south during extreme cold snaps, Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups, and first explored by Europeans in 1690 and settled in 1774. It became a province in 1905, carved out from the vast North-West Territories, in the early 20th century the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy, North Americas first social-democratic government was elected in 1944. The provinces economy is based on agriculture, mining, and energy, Saskatchewans current premier is Brad Wall and its lieutenant-governor is Vaughn Solomon Schofield. In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a land claim agreement with First Nations in Saskatchewan. The First Nations received compensation and were permitted to buy land on the market for the tribes, they have acquired about 3,079 square kilometres. Some First Nations have used their settlement to invest in urban areas and its name derived from the Saskatchewan River. The river was known as kisiskāciwani-sīpiy in the Cree language, as Saskatchewans borders largely follow the geographic coordinates of longitude and latitude, the province is roughly a quadrilateral, or a shape with four sides. However the 49th parallel boundary and the 60th northern border appear curved on globes, additionally, the eastern boundary of the province is partially crooked rather than following a line of longitude, as correction lines were devised by surveyors prior to the homestead program. S. States of Montana and North Dakota, Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features. Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two land-locked provinces, the overwhelming majority of Saskatchewans population is located in the southern third of the province, south of the 53rd parallel. Saskatchewan contains two natural regions, the Canadian Shield in the north and the Interior Plains in the south
4.
Manitoba
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Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three provinces and Canadas fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres with a varied landscape. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years, in the late 17th century, fur traders arrived in the area when it was part of Ruperts Land and owned by the Hudsons Bay Company. In 1869, negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba led to an uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada. The rebellions resolution led to the Parliament of Canada passing the Manitoba Act in 1870 that created the province, Manitobas capital and largest city, Winnipeg, is Canadas eighth-largest census metropolitan area. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, four of the provinces five universities and all four of its professional sports teams are in Winnipeg. The name Manitoba is believed to be derived from the Cree, the name derives from Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwa manidoobaa, both meaning straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit, a place referring to what are now called The Narrows in the centre of Lake Manitoba. It may also be from the Assiniboine for Lake of the Prairie, the lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies. Thomas Spence chose the name to refer to a new republic he proposed for the south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel also chose the name, and it was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act of 1870 and it adjoins Hudson Bay to the northeast, and is the only prairie province to have a saltwater coastline. The Port of Churchill is Canadas only Arctic deep-water port and the shortest shipping route between North America and Asia, Lake Winnipeg is the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Hudson Bay is the worlds second-largest bay, Manitoba is at the heart of the giant Hudson Bay watershed, once known as Ruperts Land. It was a area of the Hudsons Bay Company, with many rivers. The province has a saltwater coastline bordering Hudson Bay and more than 110,000 lakes, Manitobas major lakes are Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Winnipeg, the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Some traditional Native lands and boreal forest on Lake Winnipegs east side are a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. Manitoba is at the centre of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, with a volume of the water draining into Lake Winnipeg. This basins rivers reach far west to the mountains, far south into the United States, major watercourses include the Red, Assiniboine, Nelson, Winnipeg, Hayes, Whiteshell and Churchill rivers
5.
Western Canada
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The capital cities of the four western provinces, from West to East, are, Victoria, Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg. Except for Winnipeg, which is the largest city in Manitoba, Manitoba established as a province of Canada in 1870, following the enacting of the Manitoba Act. Saskatchewan, Established as province in 1905, with the implementation of the Saskatchewan Act, Alberta, In 1905, the same year as Saskatchewan, Alberta also was established as province. Just like Saskatchewan had the Saskatchewan Act, Alberta had the Alberta Act and this represents 31. 5% of Canadas population. While Vancouver serves as the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada, the following is a list of these areas and their populations as of 2011. Western Canada consists of the four westernmost provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan. It covers 2.9 million square kilometres – almost 29% of Canada’s land area, British Columbia adjoins the Pacific Ocean to the west, while Manitoba has a coastline on Hudson Bay in its northeast of the province. Both Alberta and Saskatchewan are landlocked between British Columbia and Manitoba, the Canadian Prairies are part of a vast sedimentary plain covering much of Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba. The prairies form a significant portion of the area of Western Canada. The plains generally describes the expanses of flat, arable agricultural land which sustain extensive grain farming operations in the southern part of the provinces. Despite this, some such as the Cypress Hills and Alberta Badlands are quite hilly. In Alberta and British Columbia, the Canadian Cordillera is bounded by the Rocky Mountains to the east, the Canadian Rockies are part of a major continental divide that extends north and south through western North America and western South America. The continental divide also defines much of the border between Alberta and British Columbia, the Columbia and the Fraser Rivers have their headwaters in the Canadian Rockies and are the second- and third-largest rivers, respectively, to drain to the west coast of North America. To the west of their headwaters, across the Rocky Mountain Trench, is a belt of mountains. The coast of British Columbia enjoys an oceanic climate because of the influence of the Pacific Ocean. Winters are typically wet and summers relatively dry and these areas enjoy the mildest winter weather in all of Canada, as temperatures rarely fall much below the freezing mark. The mountainous Interior of the province is drier and has colder winters, Alberta has a dry continental climate with warm summers and cold winters. The province is open to cold Arctic weather systems from the north, winters are generally quite cold, though some areas can experience a phenomenon known as the chinook wind, wherein warm winds raise the winter temperatures temporarily
6.
Great Plains
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The region is known for supporting extensive cattle ranching and dry farming. The Canadian portion of the Plains is known as the Prairies, some geographers include some territory of northern Mexico in the Plains, but many stop at the Rio Grande. The term Great Plains is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division and it also has currency as a region of human geography, referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains States. There is no region referred to as the Great Plains in The Atlas of Canada, in terms of human geography, the term prairie is more commonly used in Canada, and the region is known as the Prairie Provinces or simply the Prairies. The region is about 500 mi east to west and 2,000 mi north to south, much of the region was home to American bison herds until they were hunted to near extinction during the mid/late 19th century. It has an area of approximately 500,000 sq mi, current thinking regarding the geographic boundaries of the Great Plains is shown by this map at the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The term Great Plains, for the region west of about the 96th or 98th meridian, nevin Fennemans 1916 study, Physiographic Subdivision of the United States, brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Before that the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, today the term High Plains is used for a subregion of the Great Plains. The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains, during the Cretaceous Period, the Great Plains were covered by a shallow inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway. However, during the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene, the seaway had begun to recede, leaving thick marine deposits. During the Cenozoic era, specifically about 25 million years ago during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, existing forest biomes declined and grasslands became much more widespread. The grasslands provided a new niche for mammals, including many ungulates and glires, traditionally, the spread of grasslands and the development of grazers have been strongly linked. The vast majority of animals became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene. In general, the Great Plains have a variety of weather through the year, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot. Wind speeds are very high, especially in winter. Grasslands are among the least protected biomes, humans have converted much of the prairies for agricultural purposes or to create pastures. The Great Plains have dust storms mostly every year or so, the 100th meridian roughly corresponds with the line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receive 20 in or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 in. The region is subjected to extended periods of drought, high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms
7.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
8.
Prairie
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Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, southern Brazil and Uruguay as well as the steppes of Eurasia. Lands typically referred to as prairie tend to be in North America, the Central Valley of California is also a prairie. The Canadian Prairies occupy vast areas of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prairie is the French word for meadow, but the ultimate root is the Latin pratum. The formation of the North American Prairies started with the upwelling of the Rocky Mountains near Alberta, the mountains created a rain shadow that resulted in lower precipitation rates downwind, creating an environment in which most tree species will not tolerate. The parent material of most prairie soil was distributed during the last glacial advance that began about 110,000 years ago, the glaciers expanding southward scraped the landscape, picking up geologic material and leveling the terrain. As the glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago, it deposited this material in the form of till, wind based loess deposits also form an important parent material for prairie soils. Tallgrass Prairie evolved over tens of thousands of years with the disturbances of grazing, native ungulates such as bison, elk, and white-tailed deer, roamed the expansive, diverse, plentiful grassland before European colonization of the Americas. For 10, 000-20,000 years native people used fire annually as a tool to assist in hunting, transportation, evidence of ignition sources of fire in the tallgrass prairie are overwhelmingly human as opposed to lightning. Humans, and grazing animals, were participants in the process of prairie formation. Fire has the effect on prairies of removing trees, clearing dead plant matter, fire kills the vascular tissue of trees, but not prairie, as up to 75% of the total plant biomass is below the soil surface and will re-grow from its deep roots. Without disturbance, trees will encroach on a grassland, cast shade, Prairie and widely spaced oak trees evolved to coexist in the oak savanna ecosystem. In spite of long recurrent droughts and occasional torrential rains, the grasslands of the Great Plains were not subject to soil erosion. The root systems of native prairie grasses firmly held the soil in place to prevent run-off of soil, when the plant died, the fungi, bacteria returned its nutrients to the soil. These deep roots also helped native prairie plants reach water in even the driest conditions, the native grasses suffered much less damage from dry conditions than the farm crops currently grown. Prairie in North America is usually split into three groups, wet, mesic, and dry and they are generally characterized by tallgrass prairie, mixed, or shortgrass prairie, depending on the quality of soil and rainfall. In wet prairies the soil is very moist, including during most of the growing season. The resulting stagnant water is conducive to the formation of bogs, wet prairies have excellent farming soil. The average precipitation amount is 10-30 inches a year, mesic prairie /ˈmiːzɪk/ has good drainage, but good soil during the growing season
9.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu, the capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871, First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
10.
Northern mixed grasslands
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The Northern Mixed Grasslands is one of 867 terrestrial ecoregions defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines this ecoregion as the Northern Glaciated Plains, flora The Mixed Grass prairie was recognized as a mixture of the tallgrass and shortgrass prairies. The dominant grasses found here include grama, little bluestem, needle-and-thread grass, wheatgrass, Carex filifolia, junegrass, further north in the ecoregion, the transitional grassland ecoclimate supports a vegetation of quaking aspen, bur oak groves, mixed tall shrubs, and intermittent fescue grasslands. Generally, quaking aspen and shrubs occur on moist sites while bur oak, the southeast portion of the ecoregion tends to be warmer and drier. Remaining native vegetation in this portion of the ecoregion is dominated by spear grass, in addition, local saline deposits support alkali grass, wild barley, red samphire, and seablite. In the separated Cypress Upland, fescue and wheatgrass grow below 1000 m, larkspur, death camas, and wild lupine are found here and nowhere else in the prairies. Fauna The topography is broken by many glacial lakes, making this ecoregion the most productive breeding area for waterfowl in the U. S. Other wildlife characteristic of the moist mixed grassland are black-tailed and white-tailed deer, pronghorn antelope, coyote, short-horned lizard, western rattlesnake, rabbit, yellow-rumped warbler is also found only in this part of the prairies. Bison were once a feature of this ecoregion. The ecoregion provides significant waterfowl production for the continent and is a staging area. It is estimated that up to 80 percent of the wetlands, the Cypress Uplands, which are believed to have escaped the last glaciation, are located in this ecoregion. No completely intact blocks of habitat remain, restoration of some areas is just beginning. List of ecoregions in the United States List of ecoregions in the United States World |Wildlife Fund, Northern Mixed grasslands The Nature Conservancy
11.
Northern short grasslands
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The Northern short grasslands is one of 867 terrestrial ecoregions defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. This ecoregion includes parts of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the United States Environmental Protection Agency further breaks this ecoregion into the Northwestern Glaciated Plains and Northwestern Great Plains. The Northern short grasslands have a climate, with annual average precipitation ranging from 270mm to 450mm. Summers range from warm to hot, with a temperature of 16 °C. Dominant grasses include blue grama, needlegrass and spear grass, big sagebrush is common in the southwest of the region, but almost non-existent in the north, northeast and east, where silver sagebrush is very common. Prickly pear and yellow cactus can be found in drier areas, in the wettest areas, along water bodies, plains cottonwood, trembling aspen, willows and other trees can be found, along with various aquatic plants. The Northern Short Grasslands were once home to vast herds of bison, and some can still be found in such as Grasslands National Park in southwestern Saskatchewan. Pronghorn can be found in numbers in much of the region. Mule deer are common, and white-tailed deer somewhat less so. Despite various intense pest control measures, immense colonies of Richardsons ground squirrels still remain, the steppe here was once home to elk and grizzly bears, but these species have been extirpated from the plains. Prairie Shortgrass prairie Steppe Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Northern Short Grasslands, vanderbilt University - Northern short grasslands
12.
Northern tall grasslands
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The Northern tall grasslands is one of 867 terrestrial ecoregions defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. This ecoregion largely follows the Red River Valley in the Canadian province of Manitoba, the Northern tall grasslands have a humid continental climate with moderate precipitation, usually between 450-700mm. Winters here are very cold, with a winter temperature of −12.5 °C. The ecoregions mean annual temperature is 2.5 °C, dominant grasses include big bluestem, switchgrass and Indiangrass. In wetter areas, trembling aspen and bur oak can be found, like other North American prairie ecoregions, the Northern tall grasslands once supported large herds of bison and elk, which were hunted by the gray wolf and coyote. All of these save for the coyote have been eliminated from the region, though the bison. Other, more species in the ecoregion include white-tailed deer, rabbit, ground squirrel
13.
Aspen parkland
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This is the largest boreal-grassland transition zone in the world and is a zone of constant competition and tension as prairie and woodlands struggle to overtake each other within the parkland. This article focuses on this biome in North America, similar biomes also exist in Russia north of the steppes and in northern Europe. According the Ecological Framework of Canada, published in 1999, the Aspen Parkland ecoregion is the largest and northernmost section of Prairies Ecozone and this definition is the arc-shapped region. Partly, defined by climate, it had an annual temperature of approximately 1. 5°C circa 1999. By this definition, there are approximately 5,500,000 hectares of this ecoregion in the province of Alberta and these ecoregions lie in both the Boreal Plains Ecozone and the Prairies Ecozone. The Boreal sections are Manitoba Lowlands, Aspen-Oak, Aspen Grove, Mixedwood, the aspen parkland biome runs in a thin band no wider than 500 km through the Prairie Provinces, although it gets broader to the west, especially in Alberta. This is a landscape with many small lakes and ponds. There are three sections of aspen parkland, Peace River, Central, and Foothills. The Foothills parkland covers the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains as far south as Waterton Lakes National Park, the region has a Humid continental climate accompanied by a subhumid low boreal transitional grassland ecoclimate. Summers are warm and short and winters can be long and cold, the Mean annual temperatures range from 0.5 to 2.5 °C, with Summers ranging 13 to 16 °C, and winters ranging −14.5 to −12.5 °C. The Peace River Country in northwestern Alberta and northeastern areas of the North Interior in British Columbia has the coolest climate, annual precipitation is usually between 375 to 700 millimetres. Chinook winds off the foothill is also winter, mainly effecting Alberta, four significantly different habitats are common in the aspen parklands, The fescue prairie, the woodlands, the ravines and the wetlands and lakes. A rarer habitat type, tallgrass aspen parkland, occurs only in the southeastern corner of the aspen parklands biome. The fescue prairie is a meadowland rich in vegetation variety which forms the cover for the development of the soils that underlie the parklands. The close association with woodlands and wetlands makes this a choice location for many plants, the richer soil and increased precipitation favours the natural growth of fescue grass. However, varying conditions such as level and grazing pressures allow for the invasion of secondary plant species. There are numerous grasses and sedges in the fescue prairie, gravelly and rocky terrain is a good location for parry oat grass. Dry areas favour June, porcupine and spear grass, wet areas are often covered with slender wheat grass and timber oat grass
14.
Lethbridge
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Lethbridge /ˈlɛθbrɪdʒ/ is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Albertas fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, the nearby Canadian Rockies contribute to the citys warm summers, mild winters, and windy climate. Lethbridge lies southeast of Calgary on the Oldman River, Lethbridge is the commercial, financial, transportation and industrial centre of southern Alberta. The citys economy developed from drift mining for coal in the late 19th century, half of the workforce is employed in the health, education, retail and hospitality sectors, and the top five employers are government-based. The only university in Alberta south of Calgary is in Lethbridge, Cultural venues in the city include performing art theatres, museums and sports centres. Before the 19th century, the Lethbridge area was populated by several First Nations at various times, the Blackfoot referred to the area as Aksaysim, Mek-kio-towaghs, Assini-etomochi and Sik-ooh-kotok. The Sarcee referred to it as Chadish-kashi, the Cree as Kuskusukisay-guni, the Kutenai people referred to it as ʔa•kwum. The posts nickname became Fort Whoop-Up, the whiskey trade led to the Cypress Hills Massacre of many native Assiniboine in 1873. The North-West Mounted Police, sent to stop the trade and establish order and they managed the post for the next 12 years. Lethbridges economy developed from drift mines opened by Nicholas Sheran in 1874, North Westerns president was William Lethbridge, from whom the city derives its name. By the turn of the century, the mines employed about 150 men, in 1896, local collieries were the largest coal producers in the Northwest Territories, with production peaking during World War I. An internment camp was set up at the Exhibition Building in Lethbridge from September 1914 to November 1916, after the war, increasing oil and natural gas production gradually replaced coal production, and the last mine in Lethbridge closed in 1957. The first rail line in Lethbridge was opened on August 28,1885 by the Alberta Railway and Coal Company, the rail industrys dependence on coal and the Canadian Pacific Railways efforts to settle southern Alberta with immigrants boosted Lethbridges economy. After the Canadian Pacific Railway moved the point of its Crowsnest Line from Fort Macleod to Lethbridge in 1905. In the mid-1980s, the CPR moved its rail yards in downtown Lethbridge to nearby Kipp, between 1907 and 1913, a development boom occurred in Lethbridge, making it the main marketing, distribution and service centre in southern Alberta. Between World War I and World War II, however, the city experienced an economic slump, Development slowed, drought drove farmers from their farms, and coal mining rapidly declined from its peak. After World War II, irrigation of farmland near Lethbridge led to growth in the citys population, Lethbridge College opened in April 1957 and the University of Lethbridge in 1967. The city of Lethbridge is located at 49. 7° north latitude and 112. 833° west longitude, the city is divided by the Oldman River, its valley has been turned into one of the largest urban park systems in North America at 16 square kilometres of protected land
15.
Calgary
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Calgary is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, the city anchors the south end of what Statistics Canada defines as the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. The city had a population of 1,239,220 in 2016, making it Albertas largest city, also in 2016, Calgary had a metropolitan population of 1,392,609, making it the fourth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. The Calgary CMA is home to the second-highest number of head offices in Canada among the countrys 800 largest corporations. In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympic Games, Calgary was named after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. In turn, the name originates from a compound of kald and gart, similar Old Norse words, meaning cold and garden, alternatively, the name might be Gaelic Cala ghearraidh, meaning beach of the meadow, or Gaelic for either clear running water or bay farm. The Calgary area was inhabited by people whose presence has been traced back at least 11,000 years. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited by the Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, in 1787, cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan encamped along the Bow River. He was a Hudsons Bay Company trader and the first recorded European to visit the area, John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873. The site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police, the NWMP detachment was assigned in 1875 to protect the western plains from US whisky traders, and to protect the fur trade. Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer Éphrem-A, Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod. When the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the area in 1883, over a century later, the Canadian Pacific Railway headquarters moved to Calgary from Montreal in 1996. Calgary was officially incorporated as a town in 1884, and elected its first mayor, in 1894, it was incorporated as The City of Calgary in what was then the North-West Territories. The Calgary Police Service was established in 1885 and assumed municipal, local duties from the NWMP, the Calgary Fire of 1886 occurred on November 7,1886. Fourteen buildings were destroyed with losses estimated at $103,200, although no one was killed or injured, city officials drafted a law requiring all large downtown buildings to be built with Paskapoo sandstone, to prevent this from happening again. After the arrival of the railway, the Dominion Government started leasing grazing land at minimal cost, as a result of this policy, large ranching operations were established in the outlying country near Calgary. Already a transportation and distribution hub, Calgary quickly became the centre of Canadas cattle marketing and meatpacking industries. By the late 19th century, the Hudsons Bay Company expanded into the interior and established posts along rivers that later developed into the cities of Winnipeg, Calgary
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Medicine Hat
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Medicine Hat is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada. It is approximately 169 km east of Lethbridge and 295 km southeast of Calgary and this city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff to the northwest are surrounded by Cypress County. Medicine Hat was the sixth-largest city in Alberta in 2016 with a population of 63,230, Medicine Hat is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, the eastern terminus of the Crowsnest Highway, and the South Saskatchewan River. Nearby communities considered part of the Medicine Hat area include the Town of Redcliff and the hamlets of Desert Blume, Dunmore, Irvine, Seven Persons, the Cypress Hills is a relatively short distance to the southeast of the city. Historically, Medicine Hat has been known for its natural gas fields. Because of these reserves, the city is known as The Gas City, the name Medicine Hat is the English translation of Saamis – the Blackfoot word for the eagle tail feather headdress worn by medicine men – or Medicine Hat. Another legend tells of a long ago between the Blackfoot and the Cree in which a retreating Cree Medicine Man lost his headdress in the South Saskatchewan River. A number of factors have always made Medicine Hat a natural gathering place, before Europeans arrived, the Blackfoot, Cree and Assiniboine nations used the area for hundreds of years. The gently sloping valley with its waterways and hardy native cottonwood trees attracted both humans and the migratory bison herds which passed through the area. In 1883, when the Canadian Pacific Railway reached Medicine Hat, as the west developed, Medicine Hat became instrumental with the development of the first hospital past Winnipeg in 1889 and as a CPR divisional point. It was incorporated as a town on October 31,1898, Medicine Hat is halfway between Winnipeg and Vancouver. Rich in natural resources including natural gas, coal, clay, and farmland, a number of large industries located here, under the inducement of cheap and plentiful energy resources. Coal mines, brick works, pottery and glass bottle manufacturing plants, flour mills, the agricultural potential of the surrounding area, both in crop and livestock, also made the town a viable service centre with a well established transportation route. An economic boom was experienced between 1909–1914 bringing the population to over 10,000, little growth occurred between the World Wars, although the population swelled in the mid-1940s due to the town hosting one of the largest Second World War P. O. W. It was not until the 1950s that the town experienced significant commercial development. Today, Medicine Hat prides itself as one of the most economical places to live in Canada, with its unique city-owned gas utility and power generation plant being predominant factors. Major industries have included chemical plants, a Goodyear tire and rubber plant, greenhouses, numerous oil and gas related companies, the Medicine Hat landscape is dominated by the South Saskatchewan River valley. In addition to this river, both the Seven Persons Creek and Ross Creek empty into the South Saskatchewan River within the City of Medicine Hat boundary
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Edmonton
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Edmonton /ˈɛdməntən/ is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, the city anchors the north end of what Statistics Canada defines as the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. The city had a population of 932,546 in 2016, making it Albertas second-largest city, also in 2016, Edmonton had a metropolitan population of 1,321,426, making it the sixth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. Edmonton is North Americas northernmost city with a population over one million. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian, Edmontons historic growth has been facilitated through the absorption of five adjacent urban municipalities and a series of annexations ending in 1982. Known as the Gateway to the North, the city is a point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta. Edmonton is a cultural, governmental and educational centre and it hosts a year-round slate of festivals, reflected in the nickname Canadas Festival City. It is home to North Americas largest mall, West Edmonton Mall, in 1754, Anthony Henday, an explorer for the Hudsons Bay Company, may have been the first European to enter the Edmonton area. By 1795, Fort Edmonton was established on the north bank as a major trading post for the Hudsons Bay Company. The new forts name was suggested by John Peter Pruden after Edmonton, London, the home town of both the HBC deputy governor Sir James Winter Lake, and Pruden. In 1876, Treaty 6, which includes what is now Edmonton, was signed between the Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Queen Victoria as Queen of Canada, as part of the Numbered Treaties of Canada. The agreement includes the Plains and Woods Cree, Assiniboine, and other governments of First Nations at Fort Carlton, Fort Pitt. The area covered by the treaty represents most of the area of the current provinces of Saskatchewan. The arrival of the CPR and the C&E Railway helped bring settlers and entrepreneurs from eastern Canada, Europe, U. S. the Edmonton areas fertile soil and cheap land attracted settlers, further establishing Edmonton as a major regional commercial and agricultural centre. Some people participating in the Klondike Gold Rush passed through South Edmonton/Strathcona in 1897, in November 1905, the Canadian Northern Railway arrived in Edmonton, accelerating growth. During the early 1900s, Edmontons rapid growth led to speculation in real estate, in 1912, Edmonton amalgamated with the City of Strathcona, south of the North Saskatchewan River, as a result, the city extended south of the North Saskatchewan River for the first time. Just prior to World War I, the boom ended, many impoverished families moved to subsistence farms outside the city, while others fled to greener pastures in other provinces. Recruitment to the Canadian army during the war contributed to the drop in population
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Grande Prairie
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Grande Prairie is a city in northwest Alberta, Canada within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Highway 43 and Highway 40, the city is surrounded by the County of Grande Prairie No.1. Grande Prairie was the seventh-largest city in Alberta in 2016 with a population of 63,166, the city adopted the trumpeter swan as an official symbol due to its proximity to the migration route and summer nesting grounds of this bird. For that reason, Grande Prairie is sometimes nicknamed the Swan City, the dinosaur has emerged as an unofficial symbol of the city due to paleontology discoveries in the areas north and west of the Grande Prairie. Grande Prairie was named for the prairie which lies to the north, east. In the 18th century, the prairie was occupied by bands of the Dane-zaa peoples, the earliest recorded reference to the prairie was by trader Samuel Black in 1824. In 1880, a Hudsons Bay Company post called La Grande Prairie was established by George Kennedy 15 miles northwest of the present city, in the late 19th century, the prairie was settled by Cree and Iroquois from around Jasper and Lac Ste. When 17 townships were surveyed for homesteading in 1909, a land rush soon followed, in 1910, the Grande Prairie Townsite was sub-divided. By 1912, it included a bank, hotel, post office, in 1916, it became the terminus of the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway from Edmonton. The Edson Trail from Edson to Grande Prairie was opened in 1911 as a means for settlers to reach the Grande Prairie area. It was basically nothing more than a tract of clear cut bush and forest, because of this, large scale settlement came late compared to other major farming regions further south in Canada. Grande Prairie was incorporated as a village by the Province of Alberta in 1914 and it was not until the arrival of the railway in 1916 that farmland quickly expanded as waves of settlers came into the Peace region. This drove up Grande Prairies population past the 1,000 mark, a local recession in the 1920s caused a temporary depopulation of Grande Prairie. But the population rebounded afterwards by the 1930s, by time the population had reached 1,464. The Second World War saw the US and Canadian military establish Grande Prairie as a part of the Northwest Staging Route for the construction of the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek to Alaska. The construction and paving of Highway 43 in 1956 cut down on the time by road significantly, further enhancing Grande Prairies accessibility. The town was incorporated as a city in 1958, at that time, its population was approximately 7,600. The opening of the Procter & Gamble kraft pulp mill in 1972, Grande Prairies population went from just over 12,000 in the early 1970s to over 24,000 by the time the oil boom went bust in 1981
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Regina, Saskatchewan
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Regina (/rᵻˈdʒaɪnə/ is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and within the Treaty 4 territories. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and it is governed by Regina City Council. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Sherwood No.159, Regina was previously the seat of government of the North-West Territories, of which the current provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta originally formed part, and of the District of Assiniboia. The site was previously called Wascana, but was renamed to Regina in 1882 in honour of Queen Victoria and this decision was made by Queen Victorias daughter Princess Louise, who was the wife of the Governor General of Canada, the Marquess of Lorne. Unlike other planned cities in the Canadian West, on its treeless flat plain Regina has few topographical features other than the small spring run-off, Reginas importance was further secured when the new province of Saskatchewan designated the city its capital in 1906. The CCF, formulated its foundation Regina Manifesto,1933 in Regina, in recent years, Saskatchewans agricultural and mineral resources have come into new demand, and it has entered a new period of strong economic growth. The population of the Regina CMA as of 2016, was 236,481, there was an obvious conflict of interest in Dewdneys choosing the site of Pile-of-Bones as the territorial seat of government and it was a national scandal at the time. There, the Territories were remote and of little concern, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, wife of the then Governor General of Canada, named the new community Regina, in honour of her mother, Queen Victoria. The episode, including Riels imprisonment, trial and execution, brought the new Regina Leader, later the Leader-Post, to national prominence. Regina grew rapidly until the beginning of the Great Depression, in 1929, by this time, Saskatchewan was considered the third province of Canada in both population and economic indicators. Thereafter, Saskatchewan never recovered its early promise and Reginas growth slowed, in 1935, Regina gained notoriety for the Regina Riot, an incident of the On-to-Ottawa Trek. Recently older buildings have put to new uses, including the old Normal School on the Regina College campus of the University of Regina. Despite the setting, improbable though it always was compared with more likely sites for the capitol. There is an abundance of parks and greenspaces, all of its trees — some 300,000 — shrubs and other plants were hand-planted. As in other cities, American elms were planted in front yards in residential neighbourhoods. In recent years the pattern of primary and high school grounds being acreages of prairie sports grounds has been re-thought and such grounds have been landscaped with artificial hills, newer residential subdivisions in the northwest and southeast have, instead of spring runoff storm sewers, decorative landscaped lagoons. Despite having fallen in recent years, Reginas crime rate remains among the highest in Canada, Reginas overall police-reported crime rate was second highest in the country in 2012. However, the severity of crimes in Regina is quite high
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Saskatoon
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Saskatoon is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The City of Saskatoon has estimated its population to be 265,300 as of the end of 2016, the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344, the most populous municipality in Saskatchewan, surrounds the city and contains many of the developments associated with it. Saskatoon is named after the berry of the name, which is native to the region. The city has a significant Indigenous population and several urban Reserves and it is known for its diverse and vibrant culture and its eight river crossings that give it the nicknames Paris of the Prairies and Bridge City. Historic neighbourhoods of Saskatoon include Nutana and Riversdale, which were separate towns before amalgamating with the town of Saskatoon, Sutherland, the rail town the city annexed in 1956 that lies beyond the University lands, is now another historic neighbourhood. The name Saskatoon comes from the Cree inanimate noun misâskwatômina saskatoon berries, in 1882, the Toronto-based Temperance Colonization Society was granted 21 sections of land straddling the South Saskatchewan River, between what is now Warman and Dundurn. The aim of the group was to escape the liquor trade in that city, the following year settlers, led by John Neilson Lake, arrived on the site of what is now Saskatoon and established the first permanent settlement. The settlers travelled by railway from Ontario to Moose Jaw and then completed the leg via horse-drawn cart as the railway had yet to be completed to Saskatoon. In 1885 the Northwest Rebellion affected the community in a variety of ways. Chief Whitecap and Charles Trottier passed through the present day University campus on their way to join Louis Riels armed forces at Batoche, Saskatchewan. Following the fighting at the Battle of Fish Creek, and the Battle of Batoche, a few died in care and were buried in the Pioneer Cemetery near the Exhibition Grounds. A town charter for the west side of the river was obtained in 1903, in 1906 Saskatoon became a city with a population of 4,500, which included the communities of Saskatoon, Riversdale and Nutana. In 1955 Montgomery Place and in 1956 the neighbouring town of Sutherland were annexed by the fast-growing City of Saskatoon, the economy of Saskatoon has been associated with potash, oil and agriculture, resulting in the moniker POW City. Various grains, livestock, oil and gas, potash, uranium, gold, diamond, coal, the worlds largest publicly traded uranium company, Cameco, and the worlds largest potash producer, PotashCorp, have corporate headquarters in Saskatoon. Saskatoon is also the new home of BHP Billitons Diamonds and Specialty Products business unit, nearly two-thirds of the worlds recoverable potash reserves are in the Saskatoon region. Saskatoon is also home to the Canadian Light Source, Canadas national synchrotron facility, saskatoon’s digital media scene is growing with start-up tech companies such as Noodlecake, OneStory, Point2, Vendasta Technologies, and Zu. Another of Saskatoons nicknames, Hub City, refers to its central location within Canada for distribution
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Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
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Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada, after Saskatoon and Regina. It is situated near the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, the city is known as the Gateway to the North because it is the last major centre along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan. Prince Albert National Park is located 51 km north of the city and contains a wealth of lakes, forest. The city itself is located in a zone between the aspen parkland and boreal forest biomes. Prince Albert is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Prince Albert No.461, the area was named kistahpinanihk by the Cree, which translates to sitting pretty place, a great meeting place. Or meeting place The first white man to travel through the area that is now Prince Albert was Henry Kelsey in 1692, the first establishment in the area was a trading post set up in 1776 by Peter Pond. James Isbister, an Anglo-Métis employee of the Hudsons Bay Company and he farmed there until 1866, and had been joined by a number of families who called the site Isbisters Settlement. The community received a boost in 1866 when Reverend James Nisbet, Nisbet named the mission after Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, who had died in 1861, from which the present city derives its name. In 1879 the Presbyterian Church brought out Lucy Margaret Baker to run the mission school. During the same year, the local Freemasons established the first lodge in what is now the province of Saskatchewan, Kinistino Lodge No. The Mission, the settlement centrally located, and Porter Town, the settlement east of Prince Albert was termed Goschen before finally amalgamated, however East Prince Albert still appears on a 1924 map. In 1884, Honore Jaxon and James Isbister were involved in the movement which brought Louis Riel back to Canada, Riel returned from the United States following a political exile resulting from the Red River Rebellion that had occurred in 1869–1870. Five hundred people gathered to hear Riel speak one month after his return, in the Northwest Rebellion of the 1885, Prince Albert Volunteers bore the heaviest casualties of the fighting at the Battle of Duck Lake. Surrounding settlers took refuge with the North-West Mounted Police in an improvised stockade at Prince Albert, fearing an attack by Gabriel Dumont. After the Battle of Batoche, Major General Frederick Middleton marched to Prince Albert to relieve the town, Prince Albert, with a population of about 800 people, was incorporated as a town the same year under its first mayor, Thomas McKay. In 1904, the settlement was incorporated as the City of Prince Albert and its government is of a council-mayor type. Prince Albert was the capital of the District of Saskatchewan, an administrative division of what then constituted the Northwest Territories. The District of Saskatchewan was formed on May 8,1882 and this ended in 1905 when Saskatchewan became a province and Regina was designated the new provincial capital
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Brandon, Manitoba
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Brandon is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Brandon covers an area of 465.16 km2 and has a population of 48,859, while its census metropolitan area has a population of 58,003. It is a hub of trade and commerce for the Westman region as well as parts of southeastern Saskatchewan and northern North Dakota. The City of Brandon was incorporated in 1882, having a history rooted in the Assiniboine River fur trade as well as its role as a junction on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Known as The Wheat City, Brandons economy is predominantly associated with agriculture, however it also has strengths in education, manufacturing, food processing, health care, Canadian Forces Base Shilo, which maintains close socioeconomic ties with Brandon, is located 35 km east of the city. Prior to the influx of people from Eastern Canada, the area around Brandon was primarily used by the Sioux people, the Bungays, the Yellow Quills, in the 1870s and early 1880s, the Plains Bison were nearly completely wiped out by over-hunting. With the destruction of their staff of life, the buffalo, French Canadians also passed through the area on river boats on their way to the Hudson Bay Post, Fort Ellice located near present-day St. Lazare, Manitoba. During the 1870s it was believed by most that the railway would take a northwesterly direction from Portage la Prairie. Many thought that the route would most likely go through either Minnedosa or Rapid City, Rapid City was the front runner for the site of the new railway and had prepared for the impending building boom accordingly. But suddenly, in 1881, the builders of the decided to take a more westerly route from Winnipeg. Grand Valley was located on the side of the Assiniboine. Grand Valley was originally settled by two brothers John and Dougal McVicar, and their families, with the expectation of the new railroad, settlers and prospectors now rushed to an area they had previously avoided. Around 1879 a few led by Reverend George Roddick had begun to build their new homes about 10 miles south of Grand Valley. Meanwhile, in Grand Valley with the promise of the railway, regular voyages were made by steam sternwheelers to the city, each bringing more and more settlers. In the spring of 1881, General Thomas L. Rosser and it was Rossers job to choose the townsites for the railway. Rosser approached Dougald McVicar of Grand Valley and offered him $25,000 for the railway in Grand Valley, McVicar countered with $50,000 to which Rosser replied that “I’ll be damned if a town of any kind is ever built here. So instead Rosser crossed the Assiniboine river and built the site of the railway on the high sandy south of the River, so the site was then moved to a site just west of todays current First Street bridge in Brandon. A shanty had been built there by a man named J. D. Adamson, after the location of the railway was once again changed, there was still hope that Grand Valley could become a rival neighbour to Brandon
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Winnipeg
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Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is located near the centre of North America and is 110 kilometres from the U. S. border. It is also the place of the confluence of the Red, the city is named after the nearby Lake Winnipeg, the name comes from the Western Cree words for muddy water. The region was a centre for aboriginal peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738, a settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers of the Red River Colony in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. As of 2011, Winnipeg is the seventh most populated municipality in Canada, being located very far inland, the local climate is extremely seasonal even by Canadian standards with average January lows of around −21 °C and average July highs of 26 °C. Known as the Gateway to the West, Winnipeg is a railway, Winnipeg was the first Canadian host of the Pan American Games. It is home to professional sports franchises, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Winnipeg Jets, Manitoba Moose. Winnipeg lies at the confluence of the Assiniboine and the Red River of the North and this point was at the crossroads of canoe routes travelled by First Nations before European contact. Winnipeg is named after nearby Lake Winnipeg, the name is a transcription of the Western Cree words for muddy or brackish water. Estimates of the date of first settlement in this area are varied, in 1805, Canadian colonists observed First Nations peoples engaged in farming activity along the Red River. The practice quickly expanded, driven by the demand by traders for provisions, the rivers provided an extensive transportation network linking northern First Peoples with those to the south along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The Ojibwe made some of the first maps on birch bark, sieur de La Vérendrye built the first fur trading post on the site in 1738, called Fort Rouge. French trading continued at this site for decades before the arrival of the British Hudsons Bay Company after France ceded the territory following its defeat in the Seven Years War. Many French and later British men who were trappers married First Nations women, their mixed-race children hunted, traded and they gradually developed as an ethnicity known as the Métis because of sharing a traditional culture. Lord Selkirk was involved with the first permanent settlement, the purchase of land from the Hudsons Bay Company, the North West Company built Fort Gibraltar in 1809, and the Hudsons Bay Company built Fort Douglas in 1812, both in the area of present-day Winnipeg. The two companies competed fiercely over trade, the Métis and Lord Selkirks settlers fought at the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816. In 1821, the Hudsons Bay and North West Companies merged, Fort Gibraltar was renamed Fort Garry in 1822 and became the leading post in the region for the Hudsons Bay Company
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Geography of Canada
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The geography of Canada describes the geographic features of Canada, the worlds second largest country in total area. Greenland is to the northeast, off the southern coast of Newfoundland lies Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude to the North Pole, however, this claim is contested. While the magnetic North Pole lies within the Canadian Arctic territorial claim as of 2011, covering 9,984,670 km2 or 3,855,100 sq mi, Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia and slightly smaller than Europe. The northernmost settlement in Canada—and in the world—is Canadian Forces Station Alert on the tip of Ellesmere Island at 82°30′N 62°19′W. The climate varies from temperate on the west coast of British Columbia to a climate in the north. Extreme northern Canada can have snow for most of the year with a Polar climate, landlocked areas tend to have a warm summer continental climate zone with the exception of Southwestern Ontario which has a hot summer humid continental climate. Parts of Western Canada have a climate, and parts of Vancouver Island can even be classified as cool summer Mediterranean climate. Temperature extremes in Canada range from 45.0 °C in Midale and Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan on July 5,1937 to −63.0 °C in Snag, Yukon on Monday, February 3,1947. Canada covers 9,984,670 km29,984,670 km2, Canada also encompasses vast maritime terrain, with the worlds longest coastline of 243,042 kilometres. The physical geography of Canada is widely varied, the Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River where lowlands host much of Canadas population. The Appalachian mountain range extends from Alabama through the Gaspé Peninsula and it also runs through parts of southern Quebec. The Appalachian mountains are an old and eroded range of mountains, notable mountains in the Appalachians include Mount Jacques-Cartier (Quebec,1,268 m or 4,160 ft and Mount Carleton. Parts of the Appalachians are home to a rich endemic flora, the southern parts of Quebec and Ontario, in the section of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence basin, is another particularly rich sedimentary plain. Most of this forest has been cut down through agriculture and logging operations, in this part of Canada the Gulf of St. Lawrence is one of the worlds largest estuary. While the relief of these lowlands is particularly flat and regular, the most notable are Montreals Mount Royal and Mont Saint-Hilaire. These hills are known for a great richness in precious minerals, the northeastern part of Alberta, northern parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, as well as most of Labrador, are located on a vast rock base known as the Canadian Shield. The Shield mostly consists of eroded hilly terrain and contains many lakes and important rivers used for production, particularly in northern Quebec. The shield also encloses an area of wetlands, the Hudson Bay lowlands, some particular regions of the Shield are referred to as mountain ranges, including the Torngat and Laurentian Mountains
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Canadian Shield
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Composed of igneous rock resulting from its long volcanic history, the area is covered by a thin layer of soil. Human population is sparse, and industrial development is minimal, while mining is prevalent, the Canadian Shield is a physiographic division, consisting of five smaller, physiographic provinces, the Laurentian Upland, Kazan Region, Davis, Hudson and James. The shield extends into the United States as the Adirondack Mountains, the Canadian Shield is U-shaped and is a subsection of the Laurentia craton signifying the area of greatest glacial impact creating the thin soils. The Canadian Shield is more than 3.96 billion years old, the Canadian Shield once had jagged peaks, higher than any of todays mountains, but millions of years of erosion have changed these mountains to rolling hills. The Canadian Shield was the first part of North America to be elevated above sea level and has remained almost wholly untouched by successive encroachments of the sea upon the continent. It is the Earths greatest area of exposed Archean rock, the metamorphic base rocks are mostly from the Precambrian Supereon, and have been repeatedly uplifted and eroded. Today it consists largely of an area of low relief 300 to 610 m above sea level with a few monadnocks, during the Pleistocene Epoch, continental ice sheets depressed the land surface, scooped out thousands of lake basins, and carried away much of the regions soil. When the Greenland section is included, the Shield is approximately circular, bounded on the northeast by the northeast edge of Greenland and it covers much of Greenland, Labrador, most of Quebec north of the St. In total, the area of the Shield covers approximately 8,000,000 km2. The underlying rock structure also includes Hudson Bay, the Canadian Shield is among the oldest on earth, with regions dating from 2.5 to 4.2 billion years. The multitude of rivers and lakes in the region is caused by the watersheds of the area being so young. It has some of the oldest volcanoes on the planet and it has over 150 volcanic belts whose bedrock ranges from 600 to 1200 million years old. Each belt probably grew by the coalescence of accumulations erupted from numerous vents, many of Canadas major ore deposits are associated with Precambrian volcanoes. The Sturgeon Lake Caldera in Kenora District, Ontario, is one of the worlds best preserved mineralized Neoarchean caldera complexes, the Canadian Shield also contains the Mackenzie dike swarm, which is the largest dike swarm known on Earth. Mountains have deep roots and float on the denser mantle much like an iceberg at sea, as mountains erode, their roots rise and are eroded in turn. The rocks that now form the surface of the Shield were once far below the Earths surface, the high pressures and temperatures at those depths provided ideal conditions for mineralization. Although these mountains are now eroded, many large mountains still exist in Canadas far north called the Arctic Cordillera. This is a vast deeply dissected mountain range, stretching from northernmost Ellesmere Island to the northernmost tip of Labrador, the ranges highest peak is Nunavuts Barbeau Peak at 2,616 metres above sea level
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North American Cordillera
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The North American Cordillera is the North American portion of the American Cordillera which is a mountain chain along the western side of the Americas. The North American Cordillera covers an area of mountain ranges, intermontane basins. It is also called the Western Cordillera, the Western Cordillera of North America. This cordillera extends from the U. S. state of Alaska to the border of Mexico. The North American Cordillera includes some of the highest peaks on the continent and its mountain ranges generally run north to south along three main belts, the Pacific Coast Ranges in the west, the Nevadan belt in the middle, and the Laramide belt in the east. These three orogenic belts arose due to the engagement of tectonic plates which deformed the Earths lithosphere, for example, the Laramide orogeny changed the topography of the central Rocky Mountains and adjoining Laramide regions during the Late Cretaceous 80 million years ago. Prior to this time the Rocky Mountain region was occupied by a broad basin, further topographical evolution occurred during the Eocene and Oligocene, but since that time the deformation of the region has been relatively stable. Generally speaking, it will be convenient here to consider these three belts going west to east, and north to south. In Alaska, south of the Interior Plains area, is the Rocky Mountain System, then the Intermontane Basins and Ranges, in the Alaska panhandle, the mainland mountain ranges and offshore islands are extensions of respective ranges further south. In Canada, the North American Cordillera is usually divided into three regions, the western system, the interior system, and the eastern system. The western system includes the Coast Mountains, the system includes the Columbia Mountains. In Mexico, the Sierra Madre Occidental, and the Sierra Madre Oriental further east, to the west of the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Peninsular Ranges border the Pacific Ocean, and the Sierra Madre del Sur is the southern extension of the Peninsular Ranges. Sierra Madre means Mother Range in Spanish, the Nevadan belt runs up and down the middle of the North American Cordillera. Therefore, the areas of the cordillera can be divided up into the areas east of the Nevadan belt. The Pacific Coast Ranges, comprising the Pacific Coast Belt, parallel the North American Pacific Coast, along the British Columbia and Alaska coast, the mountains intermix with the sea in a complex maze of fjords, with thousands of islands. Off the Southern California coast the Channel Islands archipelago of the Santa Monica Mountains extends for 160 miles, in southern Alaska, the primary mountain ranges are the Alaska Range, Wrangell Mountains, Saint Elias Mountains, Kenai Mountains, Chugach Mountains, and Talkeetna Mountains. The Yukon Ranges comprise the mountains in the part of the U. S. state of Alaska and most of the Yukon. This range has an area of 140,820 square miles, the Coast Mountains run from the lower Fraser River and the Fraser Canyon northwestward, separating the Interior Plateau from the Pacific Ocean
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Tundra
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In physical geography, tundra is a type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr uplands, there are three types of tundra, Arctic tundra, alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra. In tundra, the vegetation is composed of shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses. Scattered trees grow in tundra regions. The ecotone between the tundra and the forest is known as the line or timberline. Arctic tundra occurs in the far Northern Hemisphere, north of the taiga belt, the word tundra usually refers only to the areas where the subsoil is permafrost, or permanently frozen soil. Permafrost tundra includes vast areas of northern Russia and Canada, the polar tundra is home to several peoples who are mostly nomadic reindeer herders, such as the Nganasan and Nenets in the permafrost area. Arctic tundra contains areas of landscape and is frozen for much of the year. The soil there is frozen from 25–90 cm down, and it is impossible for trees to grow, instead, bare and sometimes rocky land can only support low growing plants such as moss, heath, and lichen. There are two seasons, winter and summer, in the polar tundra areas. During the winter it is cold and dark, with the average temperature around −28 °C. However, extreme temperatures on the tundra do not drop as low as those experienced in taiga areas further south. During the summer, temperatures rise somewhat, and the top layer of seasonally-frozen soil melts, the tundra is covered in marshes, lakes, bogs and streams during the warm months. Generally daytime temperatures during the rise to about 12 °C. Arctic tundras are sometimes the subject of conservation programs. In Canada and Russia, many of areas are protected through a national Biodiversity Action Plan. Tundra tends to be windy, with winds often blowing upwards of 50–100 km/h, however, in terms of precipitation, it is desert-like, with only about 15–25 cm falling per year. Although precipitation is light, evaporation is also relatively minimal, there is a natural pattern of accumulation of fuel and wildfire which varies depending on the nature of vegetation and terrain
28.
Hudson Bay
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Hudson Bay is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 square kilometres. Hudson Bays southern arm is called James Bay, the Eastern Cree name for Hudson and James Bay is Wînipekw or Wînipâkw, meaning muddy or brackish water. Lake Winnipeg is similarly named by the local Cree, as is the location for the city of Winnipeg, Hudson Bay encompasses 1,230,000 square kilometres, making it the second-largest bay in the world. The bay is shallow and is considered an epicontinental sea. It is about 1,370 km long and 1,050 km wide, on the east it is connected with the Atlantic Ocean by Hudson Strait, on the north, with the Arctic Ocean by Foxe Basin, and Fury and Hecla Strait. Geographic coordinates, 78° to 95° W, 51° to 70° N. Hudson Bay is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, sometimes the Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait basins are considered part of the Arctic Ocean even though their waters flow predominantly to the Atlantic. Some sources describe Hudson Bay as a sea of the Atlantic Ocean. English explorers and colonists named Hudson Bay after Sir Henry Hudson who explored the bay beginning August 2,1610 on his ship Discovery. On his fourth voyage to North America, Hudson worked his way around Greenlands west coast and into the bay, Discovery became trapped in the ice over the winter, and the crew survived onshore at the southern tip of James Bay. When the ice cleared in the spring, Hudson wanted to explore the rest of the area and they left Hudson and others adrift in a small boat. No one knows the fate of Hudson or the crew members stranded with him, in 1668, Nonsuch reached the bay and traded for beaver pelts, leading to the creation of the Hudsons Bay Company which still bears the historic name. The HBC negotiated a trading monopoly from the British crown for the Hudson Bay watershed, called Ruperts Land, france contested this grant by sending several military expeditions to the region, but abandoned its claim in the Treaty of Utrecht. See Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay, during this period, the Hudsons Bay Company built several forts and trading posts along the coast at the mouth of the major rivers. The strategic locations were bases for inland exploration, more importantly, they were trading posts with the indigenous peoples who came to them with furs from their trapping season. The HBC shipped the furs to Europe and continued to use these posts until the beginning of the 20th century, the port of Churchill is still an important shipping link for trade with Europe and Russia. HBCs trade monopoly was abolished in 1870, and it ceded Ruperts Land to Canada, starting in 1913, the Bay was extensively charted by the Canadian Governments CSS Acadia to develop it for navigation. This mapping progress led to the establishment of Churchill, Manitoba as a port for wheat exports in 1929. Due to a change in naming conventions, Hudsons Bay is now called Hudson Bay, as a result, the names of the body of water and the company are often mistaken for one another
29.
Rural Municipality of Gimli
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Gimli is a rural municipality located in the Interlake region of south-central Manitoba, Canada, on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg. It is about 75 kilometres north of the provincial capital Winnipeg, the rural municipalitys population in the 2011 Canada census was 5,845. It also has significant Ukrainian and German communities, at 12%, the Town of Winnipeg Beach lies adjacent to its southeast corner, on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, between it and the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews to the south. Arnes Camp Morton Gimli Husavik Sandy Hook Gimli was founded by a group of Icelandic settlers who arrived in New Iceland on Lake Winnipeg in the 1870s. Beyond the borders of Manitoba as it was then, this settlement fell within the District of Keewatin, in 1876 the community was hit by a severe outbreak of smallpox. The initial status of New Iceland as a reserve remained in effect until 1899, a reenactment of the incident has aired on Discovery Channels Mayday series and on Syfys Urban Legends series. In December 2002, the town of Gimli was dissolved as a legal entity, there are over 100 commercial fishers in Gimli, catching white fish and pickerel. During the summer months, tourism is an industry, as thousands of summer cottagers fill the town of Gimli. Hotels, restaurants and stores cater to the summer visitors, two of the largest employers in Gimli are the Gimli Distillery and Faroex. The Gimli Distillery opened in 1968, the plant employs 72 people with an annual payroll of almost $4 million. The operation is situated on two quarters of land and comprises a building, barrel filling and dumping, and 46 warehouses to store the maturing whiskies. The plant, the source of Crown Royal whisky, produces the companys global Canadian whisky requirement, Faroex Ltd. established in 1981, produces composite components for use in the agricultural, automotive, consumer and military supply industries. Their first product was a flooring and support framing system made from plastic and fibreglass, Gimli celebrates its heritage with the Icelandic Festival on August long weekend. The first Icelandic festival in Manitoba was held in Winnipeg in 1890, it was held annually until 1931. The celebration showcases the work of artists in downtown Gimli. Tourists are able to anything from jewellery to paintings and Viking. The Gimli Film Festival is held annually, it features a 11-metre outdoor screen on Lake Winnipeg, mid-June 2011 saw the arrival of CJ107.5, a local radio station featuring a mixture of both country and classical rock. The station is located in the Lakeview Hotel, broadcasting in Gimli, as a result, summers are warm and sometimes hot, with winters sometimes being bitterly cold
30.
Lake Winnipeg
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It is the largest lake within southern Canadas borders, and it is part of the most undeveloped large watershed of southern Canada. It is the eleventh-largest freshwater lake on Earth, the lakes east side has pristine boreal forests and rivers that are being promoted as a potential United Nations World Heritage Park. The lake is elongated and is 416 km from north to south, with sandy beaches, large limestone cliffs. Manitoba Hydro uses the lake as one of the largest reservoirs in the world, there are many islands, most of them undeveloped. The lakes watershed measures about 982,900 square kilometres, and covers much of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, northwestern Ontario, Minnesota and its drainage is about 40 times larger than its surface, a ratio bigger than any other large lake in the world. Given the massive watershed and the small volume of water in the lake. It is not surprising to find it showing the effects of materials being added to it as a result of activities in the watershed. Lake Winnipeg drains northward into the Nelson River at an annual rate of 2,066 cubic metres per second, and forms part of the Hudson Bay watershed. This watershed area was known as Ruperts Land when the Hudsons Bay Company was chartered in 1670. The Saskatchewan River flows in from the west through Cedar Lake, the Red River flows in from the south, the Dauphin River enters from the west draining Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis. The Bloodvein River, Berens River, Poplar River and the Manigotagan River flow in from the side of the lake which is within the Canadian Shield. A number of beaches are found on the southern end of the lake. The phosphorus levels are approaching a point that could be dangerous for human health, the Global Nature Fund has declared Lake Winnipeg as the threatened lake of the year for 2013. In 2015, there was an explosion of zebra mussels in Lake Winnipeg. The mussels are devastating to the opportunities of the lake. Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba are remnants of prehistoric Glacial Lake Agassiz, the area between the lakes is called the Interlake Region, and the whole region is called the Manitoba Lowlands. It is believed Henry Kelsey was the first European to see the lake and he adopted the Cree language name for the lake, wīnipēk, meaning muddy waters. La Vérendrye referred to the lake as Ouinipigon when he built the first forts in the area in the 1730s, later, the Red River Colony to its south took the lakes name for Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba
31.
Prairies Ecozone
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The Prairies Ecozone is a Canadian terrestrial ecozone which spans the southern areas of the Prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It is an agricultural area, and is commonly referred to as Canadas breadbasket. Farmland covers about 94% of the land, and is the dominant domestic economic activity of the zone, natural gas and oil are abundant in the area. The corresponding Level II ecoregion of the US Environmental Protection Agency is the Great Plains Ecoregion, despite the predominance of farming, less than 10% of the population is involved in agriculture. It is an urbanized area, with all major population centres of these provinces located in this ecozone. These include Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, as well as Brandon, Moose Jaw, Red Deer, nearly 80% of the regions four million inhabitants live in these and other urban areas. Following Albertas border with British Columbia, this ecozone is adjacent to the Montane Cordillera on the west and it is part of the Interior Plains, the Canadian extension of the Great Plains, and covers approximately 520,000 square kilometres of land and water. Establishment of the industry has had a significant effect on the land. Fewer than half of the wetlands in the region remain, though during years of high precipitation, numerous ephemeral wetlands may form. Characterised by vast tracts of flat and rolling plains, it exhibits a variety of relief, including hummocky lands. The ecozone transformed into a relatively treeless grassland following the last glacial retreat from 11,000 to 8,000 years ago, the strata of sedimentary rock are from the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, and contain isolated pockets and cracks rich reservoirs of oil and gas. Winters are cold, due to the lack of a body of water, and summers are warm, means can very and tend to be colder eastward due to the lack of a major body of water. Due to the lack of a body of water. Winters averages around −10 °C, and summers around 15 °C, within this ecozone are a number of protected areas. These include, Elk Island National Park Grasslands National Park
32.
Tallgrass prairie
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The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. They were characteristically found in the central forest-grasslands transition, the tall grasslands, the upper Midwest forest-savanna transition. They flourished in areas with loess soils and moderate rainfall around 30 to 35 inches per year. To the east were the eastern savannas. In the northeast, where fire was infrequent and periodic windthrow represented the source of disturbance. In contrast, shortgrass prairie was typical in the western Great Plains, due to expansive agricultural land use, very little tallgrass prairie remains. Retreating glaciers deposited the parent material for soil in the form of till, i. e. unsorted sediment, wind-dropped loess and organic matter accumulated, resulting in deep levels of topsoil. Animals such as bison, elk, deer, and rabbits added nitrogen to the soil through urine, Prairie dogs, a ground squirrel-like rodent considered to be a keystone species, dug tunnels that aerated the soil and channeled water several feet below the surface. For 5,000 to 8,000 years, more than 240 million acres of prairie grasslands were a feature of the landscape. Between 1800 and 1930, the vast majority was destroyed, settlers transformed what they named the Great American Desert or The Inland Sea into farmland. Further, extensive tile drainage has changed the water content and hydrodynamics. Tallgrass prairie is capable of supporting significant biodiversity, parts of the ecoregion among the top ten ecoregions for reptiles, birds, butterflies, and tree species. Tallgrass species are found in the understory layer, oak and hickory tree species occur in some areas, but generally in moderate densities. The tallgrass prairie biome depends on fires, a form of wildfire. Tree seedlings and intrusive alien species without fire tolerance are eliminated by periodic fires, such fires may either be set by humans or started naturally by lightning. Technically, prairies have less than 5–11% tree cover, a grass-dominated plant community with 10–49% tree cover is a savanna. After the steel plow was invented by John Deere, this fertile soil became one of Americas most important resources, over 95% of the original tallgrass prairie is now farmland. In Oklahoma, the tallgrass prairie has been maintained by ranchers and they have reintroduced plains bison to the vast expanses of grass
33.
Festuca
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Festuca is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family, Poaceae. They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a range of 10–200 cm. The genus is related to ryegrass, and recent evidence from phylogenetic studies using DNA sequencing of plant mitochondrial DNA shows that the genus lacks monophyly. As a result, plant taxonomists have moved several species, including the forage grasses tall fescue and meadow fescue, because the taxonomy is complex it is not clear how many true species belong to the genus, but estimates range from over 400 to over 500. Fescue pollen is a significant contributor to hay fever, some fescues are used as ornamental and turf grasses and as pasture and hay for livestock, being a highly nutritious stock feed. Fescues are common on golf courses in the US and UK, fescue is easily established on bare ground, outcompeting other plants and persisting over several years, and so is often used in soil erosion control programs. Tall fescue is good for this purpose, and one cultivar, fescue is sometimes used as feed for horses. However, fescue poisoning, caused by alkaloids produced by the endophytic fungus Epichloë coenophiala, is a risk for pregnant mares. During the last three months of pregnancy fescue poisoning increases the risk of abortion, stillbirths, retained placenta, absent milk production. Incorporating legumes into the fescue can be a way to increase livestock gains and conception rates, even if the fescue is infected
34.
World Wide Fund for Nature
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It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. It is the worlds largest conservation organization with five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation. WWF is a foundation, with 55% of funding from individuals and bequests, 19% from government sources, the groups mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Currently, much of its work concentrates on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the biodiversity, oceans and coasts, forests. Among other issues, it is concerned with endangered species, sustainable production of commodities. The Conservation Foundation, a precursor to WWF, was founded in 1947 by Fairfield Osborn in New York City in support of capitalism-friendly ecological practices. The advisory council included leading scientists such as Charles Sutherland Elton, G Evelyn Hutchinson, Aldo Leopold, Carl Sauer, and Paul Sears. It supported much of the work cited by Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, including that of John L. George, Roger Hale, Robert Rudd. In 1990, the Conservation Foundation was merged into WWF, after becoming an affiliate of WWF in 1985, the organization now known as the Conservation Foundation in the United States is the former Forest Foundation of DuPage County. The idea for a fund on behalf of endangered animals was initially proposed by Victor Stolan to Sir Julian Huxley in response to articles he published in the British newspaper The Observer, nicholson thought up the name of the organization. WWF was conceived on 29 April 1961, under the name of World Wildlife Fund, godfrey A. Rockefeller also played an important role in its creation, assembling the first staff. For sending experts to danger spots and training, making it all possible that their needs are met before it is too late. WWF has set up offices and operations around the world, the organization also began to run its own conservation projects and campaigns, and by the 1980s started to take a more strategic approach to its conservation activities. In 1986, the changed its name to World Wide Fund for Nature. However, it continued at that time to operate under the name in the United States. We shant save all we should like to, but we shall save a great deal more than if we had never tried, – Sir Peter Scott In 1996, the organization obtained general consultative status from UNESCO. WWFs giant panda logo originated from a panda named Chi Chi that had transferred from Beijing Zoo to London Zoo in 1958. The logo was founded by Young in 1966, the organization also needed an animal that would have an impact in black and white printing
35.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
36.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
37.
Palliser's Triangle
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The soil in this area is dark brown or black in colour and is very nutrient-rich. The semi-arid conditions, however, initially made this difficult to farm. The area was named after John Palliser, the leader of the 1857–1859 survey expedition to Canadas west, Palliser discovered it was a dry land with no trees, thus, he thought it would be unsuitable for growing crops. A few years later John Macoun, a government official, argued that it would be good for growing wheat, the triangle began to be settled and farmed at the start of the 20th century. For many years this area was attractive to ranching. The sandy soil, grassy land cover, and dry weather supported cattle grazing, and although precipitation was light, many U. S. ranchers would bring herds north to graze in the triangle. By 1912, however, much of the land was overgrazed, for a time yields were high, but a combination of the dry conditions and poor agricultural practices turned the area into a Dust Bowl in the 1930s, helping plunge Canada into the Great Depression. Modern farming techniques and a series of rainy years helped to reestablish the area as an important farming region, however, the north edge of the triangle contains black soil, Farms around Edmonton and Saskatoon are especially notable as good crop land. Although Pallisers Triangle designated land that was lacking of resources for settlement, the significance of the fertile belt was that this was a region rich with agriculture soil that would allow for settlement to flourish. Geography of Alberta Geography of Saskatchewan Geography of Manitoba Canadian Prairies Aspen parkland Shortgrass prairie Great Plains Steppe Calgary & Southern Alberta - Pallisers Triangle
38.
Chernozem
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Chernozem is a black-coloured soil containing a high percentage of humus, and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia. Chernozem is very fertile and produces a high agricultural yield, similar soil types occur in Texas and Hungary. Chernozem layer thickness may vary widely, from several inches up to 60 inches in Ukraine, the terrain can also be found in small quantities elsewhere. It also exists in Northeast China, near Harbin, the only true chernozem in Australia is located around Nimmitabel producing some of the richest soils in the nation. The sale of land has been illegal in Ukraine since 1992. Chernozemic soils are a type in the Canadian system of soil classification
39.
Soil
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Soil is a mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids, and countless organisms that together support life on Earth. Soil is called the Skin of the Earth and interfaces with the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, the term pedolith, used commonly to refer to the soil, literally translates ground stone. Soil consists of a phase of minerals and organic matter, as well as a porous phase that holds gases. Accordingly, soils are often treated as a system of solids, liquids. Soil is a product of the influence of climate, relief, organisms, Soil continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness soil has been considered as an ecosystem by soil ecologists. Most soils have a dry bulk density between 1.1 and 1.6 g/cm3, while the particle density is much higher. Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than the Pleistocene and none is older than the Cenozoic, Soil science has two basic branches of study, edaphology and pedology. Edaphology is concerned with the influence of soils on living things, pedology is focused on the formation, description, and classification of soils in their natural environment. In engineering terms, soil is referred to as regolith, or loose material that lies above the solid geology. Soil is commonly referred to as earth or dirt, technically, as soil resources serve as a basis for food security, the international community advocates its sustainable and responsible use through different types of soil governance. Soil is a component of the Earths ecosystem. The worlds ecosystems are impacted in far-reaching ways by the carried out in the soil, from ozone depletion and global warming, to rainforest destruction. Following the atmosphere, the soil is the next largest carbon reservoir on Earth, as the planet warms, soils will add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere due to its increased biological activity at higher temperatures. Thus, soil carbon losses likely have a positive feedback response to global warming. Since soil has a range of available niches and habitats. A gram of soil can contain billions of organisms, belonging to thousands of species, mostly microbial, Soil has a mean prokaryotic density of roughly 108 organisms per gram, whereas the ocean has no more than 107 procaryotic organisms per milliliter of seawater. Since plant roots need oxygen, ventilation is an important characteristic of soil and this ventilation can be accomplished via networks of interconnected soil pores, which also absorb and hold rainwater making it readily available for plant uptake
40.
Semi-arid climate
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A semi-arid climate or steppe climate is the climate of a region that receives precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely. There are different kinds of climates, depending on such variables as temperature. Semi-arid climates tend to short or scrubby vegetation, with semi-arid areas usually dominated by either grasses or shrubs. To determine if a location has a climate, the precipitation threshold must first be determined. If the areas precipitation is less than the threshold but more than half the threshold. Hot semi-arid climates tend to be located in the tropics and subtropics and these climates tend to have hot, sometimes extremely hot, summers and warm to cool winters, with some to minimal precipitation. Hot semi-arid climates are most commonly found around the fringes of subtropical deserts, hot semi-arid climates are most commonly found in Africa, Australia and South Asia. In Australia, a portion of the Outback surrounding the central desert regions lies within the hot semi-arid climate regime. Hot semi-arid climates can also be found in North America, primarily in Mexico, areas of Texas near Mexico, cold semi-arid climates tend to be located in temperate zones or elevated portions in subtropical zones. They are typically found in continental interiors some distance from bodies of water. Cold semi-arid climates usually feature warm and dry summers, though their summers are not quite as hot as those of hot semi-arid climates. Unlike hot semi-arid climates, areas with cold semi-arid climates tend to have cold winters and these areas usually see some snowfall during the winter, though snowfall is much lower than at locations at similar latitudes with more humid climates. These large diurnal temperature variations are seen in hot semi-arid climates. Cold semi-arid climates are most commonly found in Asia and North America, however, they can also be found in Northern Africa, South Africa, Europe, sections of South America and sections of interior southern Australia and New Zealand. As a result of this, some areas can have climates that are classified as hot or cold depending on the isotherm used. One such location is San Diego, California, which has cool summers for the due to prevailing winds off the ocean. Arid Forest Research Institute Continental climate Dust Bowl Goyders Line Pallisers Triangle Köppen climate classification Wave height Ustic
41.
Wild rice
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Wild rice are four species of grasses forming the genus Zizania, and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both North America and China, while now a delicacy in North America, the grain is eaten less in China, where the plants stem is used as a vegetable. Wild rice is not directly related to Asian rice, whose wild progenitors are O. rufipogon and O. nivara, although they are close cousins, wild-rice grains have a chewy outer sheath with a tender inner grain that has a slightly vegetal taste. The plants grow in water in small lakes and slow-flowing streams, often. The grain is eaten by dabbling ducks and other aquatic wildlife, wild rice, also an annual, grows in the Saint Lawrence River and on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Texas wild rice is a plant found only in a small area along the San Marcos River in central Texas. One species is native to Asia, Manchurian wild rice, is a native to China. Texas wild rice is in danger of extinction due to loss of habitat in its limited range. The pollen of Texas wild rice can only travel about 30 inches away from a parent plant, if pollen does not land on a receptive female flower within that distance, no seeds are produced. Manchurian wild rice has almost disappeared from the wild in its native range, the species most commonly harvested as grain are annual species, Zizania palustris is now grown commercially, but Zizania aquatica was also used extensively in the past by Indians. Native Americans and others harvest wild rice by canoeing into a stand of plants, the size of the knockers, as well as other details, are prescribed in state and tribal law. By Minnesota statute, knockers must be at most 1 in diameter,30 in long, the plants are not beaten with the knockers but require only a gentle brushing to dislodge the mature grain. The Ojibwa people call this plant manoomin, meaning harvesting berry, some seeds fall to the muddy bottom and germinate later in the year. Several Native American cultures, such as the Ojibwa, consider wild rice to be a component in their culture. Tribes that are recorded as historically harvesting Zizania aquatica are the Dakota, Menominee, Meskwaki, Ojibwa, Omaha, Ponca, Thompson, Native people who utilized Zizania palustris are the Chippewa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi. The rice is harvested with a canoe, one person vans rice into the canoe with two small poles while the other paddles slowly or uses a push pole, for these groups, this harvest is an important cultural event. The Menominee tribe were named Omanoominii by the neighboring Ojibwa after this plant, because of its nutritional value and taste, wild rice increased in popularity in the late 20th century, and commercial cultivation began in the U. S. and Canada to supply the increased demand. In 1950, James and Gerald Godward started experimenting with wild rice in a meadow north of Brainerd
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