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Of the two land blocks that comprise the park,
the one on the west has the Frenchman River
Valley as its dominant feature. Carved out by
a glacial stream 10 000 years ago, the valley
abounds in coulees, creeks, and buttes that
rise as high as 100 metres above the valley
floor. In the eastern sector, the park encompasses
diverse natural features including deep wooded
coulees in the north, extensive grasslands to
the south, and the Killdeer Badlands in the
east. The Badlands were unglaciated and centuries
of erosion have produced sand dunes, potholes
and rocky canyons. Retreating glaciers sculpted
the smooth rolling hills that tilt the plains
toward the Rockies. Soils in the grasslands
are mainly the product of shale, sandstone and
clay.
The park
preserves a rich and complex ecosystem supporting
an incredible diversity of plants, encompassing
over 40 different varieties of grasses. Grasses,
such as spear grass, wheat grass, and blue grama
grass, have always dominated the region because
they adapt to the lack of water and spring back
quickly after the dry land fires that consume
other forms of vegetation. Generally confined
to the riverbottoms and some upland slopes and
coulees where there is more moisture, trees
and shrubs such as aspen, green ash, wolf willow,
oaks, American elm, cottonwood, Manitoba maple
and buffalo berry flourish, while drier areas
are able to nurture sage, rabbit brush, mosses,
lichens and the prickly pear and pincushion
varieties of cactus. Wildflowers, such as the
Gumbo Evening primrose and the Prairie Crocus
briefly add their vibrant colours to the prairie
landscape. Thirty-six rare plant species that
have been identified within the park include
dwarf fleabane, BesseyŪs focoweed, squirrel
tail grass, oat grass and Rocky mountain juniper.
One of the parkŪs projects to restore the mixed
grasslands is the rehabilitation of fields plowed
under by homesteaders who were required to break
10 acres of land each year as part of their
land deed agreement.
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