Chapter 12: The Great Plains and Prairies

Review of the Great Plains

1. Over the past 450 years, views of the Great Plains have shifted between a dry wasteland to a land of rich agricultural opportunity.
2. The region has some of the least variation in vegetation and topography of any region in North America.
3. Severe weather, including tornadoes, thunderstorms, and hail, is widespread across the Great Plains.
4. Agriculture dominates the Plains economy and is characterized by large-scale operations and a high reliance on heavy machinery.
5. The control and management of water is the most important natural resource issue in the region. 

The Great Plains covers southern Texas up to the Canadian Border, includes Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, both N. and S. Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. The landscape is low, flat terrain like, but in San Francisco the landscape is mostly hilly, there are 50 hills within the city. Mount Davidson is the highest hill  at 925ft. 

The climate in San Francisco has little temperature change with a cool breeze coming from the ocean, it is nothing like the plains. 

San Franciscos water is monitored by the SFPUC, which is responsible for 63,000 acres of water shed land, serving 2.4 million people.