Elk County Ecological Geography

[flintauqua]

There has been discussion in another thread about Elk County's location geographically, administratively, politically and economically.

I'd like to present how the Elk County area is described ecologically.

In the conterminous United States there are 84 Level III Ecoregions.  Ecoregions differ from each other based on physiological traits such as topography, geology, climate, flaura and fauna, etc.  I don't know how many places in the country lie where three or more of these 84 regions intersect, but in Kansas there are only seven out of 105 counties where three different regions exist:

Meade County in SW Kansas, Marshall and Jackson counties in NE Kansas, and Chautauqua, Elk, Greenwood, and Woodson counties in SE/SC Kansas.

The three Ecoregions that are present in each of CQ, EK, GW, & WO counties are:

28  Flint Hills (no level four)
29  Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains (Level 4 - a. Cross Timbers)
40  Central Irregular Plains (Level 4 - b. Osage Cuestas)

All of this can be verified at:   ftp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/ks_ne/ksne_front.pdf

I will follow later with more observation and opinion on how this has directly and indirectly led to the present condition of the area, and how this diversity could be better utlized to stimulate economic activity in the region.