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fact, that
about half of North America’s migratory birds
stop off at these potholes.
Winters are cold on the Boreal Plains, with mean temperatures
ranging between -11°C and -17.5°C. Summers are
pleasantly warm: mean temperatures then hit between
13°C and 15.5°C. The “rain shadow”
of the Rocky Mountains keeps the mean annual precipitation
to a low of 300 millimetres at the western end of this
ecozone, but this just more than doubles in the east
to 625 millimetres.
Inhabited by aboriginal peoples for some 6000 years, the
Boreal Plains are now home to three-quarters of a million
people, who live mainly in small communities. The largest
city in the region is Fort McMurray, with a population
of close to 50,000. Along the southern edge of this ecozone
there is agriculture (mainly small grains and some cattle),
but the main areas of employment are service |
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| industries,
public administration, forestry, oil and gas exploration
and production, mining, and tourism. Four National Parks
exist in the region: Elk Island and (most of) Wood Buffalo,
in Alberta; Prince Albert, in Saskatchewan; and Riding
Mountain, in Manitoba.
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This wetland in Riding
Mountain National Park (Manitoba) is just one of hundreds
of wetland areas across the Boreal Plains ecozone. |
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Image © Parks
Canada Ref. #07.70.03.23(10)
Photograph by Parks/Parcs Canada |
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