Ecozones Project – Boreal Plains
Alexander Bajic
Map of the Boreal Plains
General Statistics and Facts
Landforms: Level to gently rolling plains
Climate: Long cold winters; short warm summers; percipitation
450 mm; growing season 130 to 165 days
Vegetation: Coniferous forests mixed with some deciduous;
notable marsh areas
Soils: Rich soils formed under forests, occasional marsh soils
Human Activities: Total population 771205; GDP $13.7 billion;
forestry, farming, tourism, oil and gas development
Major Urban Areas: Hinton (highest pop. in region at 9405), La
Ronge, The Pas, Flin Flon, Peace River, Fort Smith
Notable Terms and Concepts
Bioregion:
A region defined by characteristics of the natural environment
rather than by man-made divisions.
Ecozone:
A region that has a unique amalgamation of plants, wildlife,
climate, landforms, and human activities.
Ecological Footprint:
The sum of an individual's or other entity's impact on the
environment, based on consumption and pollution.
Boundaries:
A line that marks the limits of an area or a dividing line.
Notable Terms and Conditions (cont.)
Transition Zone:
A zone where the characteristics of one region gradually
change into the next.
Landforms:
A natural feature of the earth's surface.
Climate:
The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a
long period
Notable Terms and Conditions (cont.)
Vegetation:
Plants considered collectively, esp. those found in a particular
area or habitat.
Soils:
The upper layer of earth in which plants grow, a black or dark
brown material typically consisting of a mixture of organic
remains, clay, and rock particles.
Human Activities:
Major Urban Areas:
Areas of large and particularly dense population.
Human Activities and their interaction
with the environment
Human Activities have many impacts on the environment, some
notable ones are included in the following list:
-Urban expansion; this form of human activity affects the
environment in that as the city expands, good farmland around the
outskirts of the city can be swallowed up by urban sprawl
-Logging can often result in a profusion of tree stumps and
unusable and unproductive land, the impacts of mass deforestation
includes soil erosion which often incurs the result of the land
becoming a wasteland. There have been policies implemented on
various levels to assist in mitigating this
-Hunting; this human activity, although often essential, can in some
cases be dangerous to the survival of certain species and can cause
them to become endangered. This has been greatly reduced with
things such as the legal protection of certain endangered animals
Human Activities and their interaction
with the environment (cont.)
Human interaction with the environment is
quite seldom positive for the environment, but
through certain policies and regulations, it can
be kept sustainable.
Interesting Points about the Boreal
Plains
Positive Point
• There is much potential for development in the Boreal
Plains such as forestry, farming and oil and gas
extraction and processing operations
Negative Point
• There is a relatively short growing season and the
region suffers from long and cold winters and short and
cool summers, there is also extensive unusable
marshland
Interesting Point
• The Boreal Plains contain the largest national park in
Canada; Wood Buffalo National Park
Geographic Issues in the Boreal Plains
Recently the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change released a report, which among
many other things, stated that over the next few
decades, the boreal biome which includes
Canada’s Boreal Plains, will see the slow and
constant migration of the region’s coniferous
forests to what is currently tundra. It is also sad
that species, many of whom there are in the
Boreal Plains will be affected by this issue.