The Parkland or Grove Belt of Alberta

Abstract

The terms ‘Parkland’ and ‘Grove Belt’ are applied, in this paper, to a transition or tension belt which lies between the Poplar Area and the Prairie (Fig. 16.1). This belt consists of groves of aspens and patches of prairie grassland, more or less uniformly intermixed. In the central part of the belt, these two types of vegetation dominate practically equal areas, the aspen community occupying the more moist and more sheltered situations, the prairie occurring in the drier and more exposed places. Such typical Parkland is illustrated in Plate 12(b), which shows a knoll viewed from the east with aspen vegetation on the north slope and prairie on the south slope. In areas of this kind the aspen consociation also occurs on north-east and sometimes on east slopes, while prairie usually occupies west slopes.