"The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil.
It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground...
It is well-tended, and not too many cattle feed upon it;
Not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil."
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

There are four major grasslands in the world--the Pampas of South America, the Savanna of Africa, the Steppes of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Great Plains of North America. The Great Plains is a strip of land 400 miles wide lying just east of the Rocky Mountains. It stretches all the way from Mexico 2500 miles north into central Canada. Parts of ten states and three provinces--North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba--are in the Great Plains.

 

Last Updated March 19, 2007