Canadian Prairies

Canadian Prairies Prairies canadiennes (French)
Ecoregion
Farm on the prairies near Hartney, Manitoba
Map of the Prairie Provinces
Location	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba in Canada
Area
• Total	1,960,681 km2 (757,023 sq mi)[1]
Highest elevation	3,747 m (12,293 ft)

The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.^[2] These provinces are partially covered by grasslands, plains, and lowlands, mostly in the southern regions. The northernmost reaches of the Canadian Prairies are less dense in population, marked by forests and more variable topography.^[3] If the region is defined to include areas only covered by prairie land, the corresponding region is known as the Interior Plains.^[4] Physical or ecological aspects of the Canadian Prairies extend to northeastern British Columbia, but that area is not included in political use of the term.^[5]

The prairies in Canada are a biome of temperate grassland and shrubland within the prairie ecoregion of Canada that consists of northern mixed grasslands in Alberta, Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, as well as northern short grasslands in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan.^[6] The Prairies Ecozone of Canada includes the northern tall grasslands in southern Manitoba and Aspen parkland, which covers central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba.^[7] The Prairie starts from north of Edmonton and it covers the three provinces in a southward-slanting line east to the Manitoba–Minnesota border.^[8] Alberta has the most land classified as prairie, while Manitoba has the least, as the boreal forest begins more southerly in Manitoba than in Alberta.^[9]