Editing Great Plains (section)

==Usage==
[[File:The continent we live on (1961) (20658440756).jpg|thumb|left|The Great Plains (United States) and the [[Canadian Prairies]]]]
The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast [[Interior Plains]] physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of [[human geography]], referring to the [[Plains Indians]] or the [[Plains states]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In Canada the term is rarely used; [[Natural Resources Canada]], the government department responsible for official mapping, treats the Interior Plains as one unit consisting of several related plateaus and plains. There is no region referred to as the "Great Plains" in the ''[[Atlas of Canada]]''.<ref>[http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/land/arm_physio_plains/1 Atlas.nrcan.gc.ca] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122000541/http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/land/arm_physio_plains/1 |date=January 22, 2013 }}</ref> In terms of human geography, the term ''prairie'' is more commonly used in Canada, and the region is known as the [[Canadian Prairies]], prairie provinces or simply "the prairies".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Prairies |url=https://thecanadaguide.com/places/the-prairies/ |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=The Canada Guide |language=en-CA}}</ref>

The ''[[North American Environmental Atlas]]'', produced by the [[Commission for Environmental Cooperation]], a [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA) agency composed of the geographical agencies of the Mexican, American, and Canadian governments, uses the "Great Plains" as an [[ecoregion]] synonymous with predominant prairies and grasslands rather than as physiographic region defined by topography.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120724143053/http://www.cec.org/atlas/ CEC.org]</ref> The Great Plains ecoregion includes five sub-regions: Temperate Prairies, West-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, South-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, Texas Louisiana Coastal Plains, and Tamaulipas-Texas Semi-Arid Plain, which overlap or expand upon other Great Plains designations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/ecoregions/na_eco.htm |title=About the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) |access-date=May 26, 2014 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924144150/http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/ecoregions/na_eco.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Clear}}