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Columbia Plateau

Ecoregion on Columbia Plateau in OR, WA, British Columbia, ID

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The Columbia Plateau is an arid sagebrush steppe and grassland, surrounded on all sides by moister, predominantly forested, mountainous ecological regions. This region is underlain by basalt up to two miles thick. It is covered in some places by loess soils that have been extensively cultivated for wheat, particularly in the eastern portions of the region where precipitation amounts are greater. During the glaciation of the Pleistocene era, parts of the area were scoured to bedrock by huge floods from breached ice dams.

— EPA

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