Nez Perce Prairie (10j)
The Nez Perce Prairie is a loess-covered plateau named after the Nez Perce tribe who originally inhabited the area and whose reservation is located here today. It is higher, cooler, less hilly, and has shallower soils than the Palouse Hills. Elevation varies from 2,000 to 4,100 feet (600 to 950 m), with buttes up to 5,700 feet (1,700 m). Idaho fescue and bluebunch wheatgrass are native, with Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine on north-facing slopes. Cropland is now extensive and grows wheat, barley, peas, and hay. The headwaters of many perennial streams are impacted by agricultural land use, negatively impacting the water quality of downstream canyon reaches. The region covers 725 square miles (1,878 km2) in Idaho, on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and surrounding areas.
Read more about this topic: Columbia Plateau (ecoregion), Level IV Ecoregions
Famous quotes containing the word prairie:
“To the cry of “follow Mormons and prairie dogs and find good land,” Civil War veterans flocked into Nebraska, joining a vast stampede of unemployed workers, tenant farmers, and European immigrants.”
—For the State of Nebraska, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)