Prairies in Canada

Rolf sent me this interesting card showing grain elevators in the prairies in Canada.

The Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in Western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the  provinces of Alberta,  Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are partially covered by prairie(grasslands). In a more restricted sense, the term may also refer only to the areas of those provinces covered by prairie. Prairie also covers portions of northeastern British Columbia, though that province is typically not included in the region in a political sense.

The word prairie usually refers to a type of grassland, and true prairies occur only in the southern reaches of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Contrasted to this are other biomes such as the boreal forest taking up the majority of the Prairie Provinces, or the aspen parkland.

However "the prairies" may also refer to all of the Interior Plains region within Canada, in contrast with the Rocky Mountains and Canadian Shield, and is a continuation of the Great Plains region of the United States.

It may also refer to all of the farmland in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, a definition based on human use, which includes all of the aspen parkland biome.