Map of Great Plains Province States including:
Northern Panhandle of Texas
Western Oklahoma
Northern Missouri
West Central Illinois
Iowa
South Dakota
North Dakota
Nebraska
Kansas
Southern Minnesota
Eastern Montana
Eastern Wyoming
Eastern Colorado
OVERVIEW: CHARACTER OF THE GREAT PLAINS PROVINCE BUILT AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS
Great Plains Province
The Great Plains Province can be divided into
landscapes that include flat land, rolling land,
and riparian areas. These are subtle landscapes
that merit sympathetic design. Users of this
guide should pay attention to the following
characteristics:
Climate: The Great Plains climate is arid but rapidly
changeable with dramatic extremes. Blizzards are
common, although the sun evaporates or melts
the snow quickly. Flash floods can occur in spring.
Winds are strong and tornadoes are a factor.
Topography: The flat line of the horizon dominates
the Great Plains. The topography actually varies
from strictly flat, to rolling sandhills, to mesas
and buttes.
Vegetation: With the exception of large
cottonwoods that grow near creeks and ditches,
the native vegetation of the Great Plains is sparse
and small in scale, dominated by grasses and
shrubs. The Great Plains appears both sparsely
inhabited and highly domesticated because of
widespread agriculture. Crops such as wheat,
corn, soybeans, and pasture grasses contribute
to our vision of the typical Great Plains landscape.
Water: Water may be the most precious resource
on the Great Plains, as well as the element that
most attracts people and wildlife. People are
drawn to the shade, the lush substory vegetation,
the wildlife, and the opportunities for fishing,
boating, and swimming. Water elements include
lakes, wetlands, creeks, and rivers.
“Aridity, more than anything else, gives
the western landscape its character.
It is aridity that gives the air its special
dry clarity; aridity that puts brilliance
in the light and polishes and enlarges
the stars; aridity that leads the
grasses to evolve as bunches rather
than turf; aridity that exposes the
pigmentation of the raw earth....”
—Wallace Stegner