978-1-4222-3326-9

39

Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska

View of the Sandhills region of Nebraska, which covers about one-fourth of Nebraska. The sandy soil here is not suitable for growing crops, although the grasses that anchor the dunes in place can be used for grazing. As a result, the Sandhills are a productive region for cattle ranching.

ping through on their northward migration. In early spring, millions of snow geese congregate here. In the north-central part of Nebraska is the roughly 20,000- square-mile (51,800 sq km) Sandhills area. This is North America’s largest

The Rainwater Basin in south-cen- tral Nebraska contains thousands of clay-lined basins that trap rainwater to form shallow marshes and wetlands. These sink-like basins—created by wind erosion some 27,000 years ago— attract large numbers of birds stop-