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November 2010Level III and IV Ecoregions of EPA Region 5

53a Rock River Drift Plain53b Kettle Moraines53c Southeastern Wisconsin Savannah and Till Plain53d Lake Michigan Lacustrine Clay Plain

54a Illinois/Indiana Prairies54b Chicago Lake Plain54c Kankakee Marsh54d Sand Area54e Chiwaukee Prairie Region54f Valparaiso-Wheaton Morainal Complex54g Rock River Hills

55a Clayey High Lime Till Plains55b Loamy High Lime Till Plains55c Mad River Interlobate Area55d Pre-Wisconsinan Drift Plains55e Darby Plains55f Whitewater Interlobate Area

56a Northern Indiana Lake Country56b Battle Creek/Elkhart Outwash Plain56c Middle Tippecanoe Plains56d Michigan Lake Plain56f Lake Michigan Moraines56g Lansing Loamy Plain56h Interlobate Dead Ice Moraines

57a Maumee Lake Plain57b Oak Openings57c Paulding Plains57d Marblehead Drift/Limestone Plain57e Saginaw Lake Plain

61b Mosquito Creek/Pymatuning Lowlands61c Low Lime Drift Plain61d Erie Gorges61e Summit Interlobate Area

70a Permian Hills70b Monongahela Transition Zone70c Pittsburgh Low Plateau70d Knobs-Lower Scioto Dissected Plateau70e Unglaciated Upper Muskingum Basin70f Ohio/Kentucky Carboniferous Plateau

71a Crawford-Mammoth Cave Uplands71b Mitchell Plain71c Knobs-Norman Upland71d Outer Bluegrass71m Northern Shawnee Hills71n Southern Shawnee Hills

72a Wabash-Ohio Bottomlands72b Glaciated Wabash Lowlands72c Green River-Southern Wabash Lowlands72d Upper Mississippi Alluvial Plain72e Middle Mississippi Alluvial Plain72f River Hills72g Southern Ozarkian River Bluffs72i Western Dissected Illinoian Till Plain72j Southern Illinoian Till Plain72k Cretaceous Hills72l Karstic Northern Ozarkian River Bluffs72m Wabash River Bluffs and Low Hills

73a Northern Holocene Meander Belts

83a Erie/Ontario Lake Plain83 Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands

73 Mississippi Alluvial Plain

72 Interior River Valleys and Hills

71 Interior Plateau

70 Western Allegheny Plateau

61 Erie Drift Plain

57 Huron/Erie Lake Plains

56 Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains

55 Eastern Corn Belt Plains

54 Central Corn Belt Plains

53 Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains46e Tewaukon/Big Stone Stagnation Moraine46k Prairie Coteau46l Prairie Coteau Escarpment46m Big Sioux Basin46o Minnesota River Prairie

46 Northern Glaciated Plains

47a Loess Prairies47b Des Moines Lobe47c Eastern Iowa and Minnesota Drift Plains47g Lower St. Croix and Vermillion Valleys

47 Western Corn Belt Plains

48a Glacial Lake Agassiz Basin48b Beach Ridges and Sand Deltas48d Lake Agassiz Plains

48 Lake Agassiz Plain

49a Peatlands49b Forested Lake Plains

49 Northern Minnesota Wetlands

50aa Menominee-Drummond Lakeshore50ab Cheboygan Lake Plain50ac Onaway Moraines50ad Vanderbilt Moraines50ae Mio Plateau50af Cadillac Hummocky Moraines50ag Newaygo Barrens50ah Tawas Lake Plain

50a Lake Superior Clay Plain50b Minnesota/Wisconsin Upland Till Plain50c St. Croix Pine Barrens50d Superior Mineral Ranges50e Chequamegon Moraines and Outwash Plain50f Blue Hills50g Chippewa Lobe Rocky Ground Moraines50h Perkinstown End Moraines50i Northern Wisconsin Highlands Lakes Country50j Brule and Paint River Drumlins50k Wisconsin/Michigan Pine Barrens50l Menominee Drumlins and Ground Moraine50m Mesabi Range50n Boundary Lakes and Hills50o Glacial Lakes Upham and Aitken50p Toimi Drumlins50q Itasca and St. Louis Moraines50r Chippewa Plains50s Nashwauk/Marcell Moraines and Uplands50t North Shore Highlands50u Keweenaw-Baraga Moraines50v Winegar Dead Ice Moraine50w Michigamme Highland50x Grand Marais Lakeshore50y Seney-Tahquamenon Sand Plain50z Rudyard Clay Plain

50 Northern Lakes and Forests

51a St. Croix Stagnation Moraines51b Central Wisconsin Undulating Till Plain51c Glacial Lake Wisconsin Sand Plain51d Central Sand Ridges51e Upper Wolf River Stagnation Moraine51f Green Bay Till and Lacustrine Plain51g Door Peninsula51h Anoka Sand Plain and Mississippi Valley Outwash51i Big Woods51j Alexandria Moraines and Detroit Lakes Outwash Plain51k McGrath Till Plain and Drumlins51l Wadena/Todd Drumlins and Osakis Till Plain51m Manistee-Leelanau Shore51n Platte River Outwash

51 North Central Hardwood Forests

52a Savanna Section52b Blufflands and Coulees52c Rochester/Paleozoic Plateau Upland

52 Driftless Area

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Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. They are designed to serve as a spatial framework for environmental resource management. This map depicts revisions and subdivisions of ecoregions, compiled originally at a relatively small scale (U.S. EPA 2010, Omernik 1987). Compilation of this map, performed at the larger 1:250,000-scale, is part of several collaborative projects primarily between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. EPA Region V, and state environmental resource agencies (Omernik et al. 2004, Woods et al. 2006, 1998). Collaboration and consultation also occurred with other state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey, in an effort to obtain consensus regarding alignments of ecological regions.

The approach used to compile this map is based on the premise that ecological regions can be identified through the analysis of the patterns and the composition of biotic and abiotic phenomena that affect or reflect differences in ecosystem quality and integrity. These phenomena include geology, physiography, vegetation, climate, soils, land use, wildlife, and hydrology. The relative importance of each characteristic varies from one ecological region to another regardless of the hierarchical level. Explanations of the methods used to define the ecoregions are given in Omernik (1995, 2000, 2004).

Regional collaborative projects such as these state efforts, where the goal is to reach consensus among resource management agencies, comprise a step toward reaching the objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding for developing a common framework of ecological regions (McMahon et al. 2001). A common spatial framework would allow integrated ecosystem-type resource management across agencies having different responsibilities and interests for the same geographic areas. Reaching that objective requires recognition of the differences in the conceptual approaches and mapping methodologies that have been used to develop the most commonly used existing ecoregion-type frameworks, including those developed by the U.S. Forest Service (Cleland et al. 2007), the U.S. EPA (Omernik 1987, 2010), and the NRCS (U.S. Department of Agriculture-NRCS 2006). As each of these frameworks is further developed, the differences between them are decreasing. Collaborative projects at the state and regional level, where some agreement has been reached among multiple resource management agencies, are a step toward attaining consensus and consistency in ecoregion frameworks for the entire nation.

Comments or questions should be addressed to James Omernik, USGS, c/o U.S. EPA-NHEERL, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, (541) 754-4458, email: omernik.james@epa.gov, or to Glenn Griffith, Dynamac Inc., c/o U.S. EPA, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, (541) 754-4465, email: griffith.glenn@epa.gov.

Literature Cited:

Cleland, D.T., J.A Freeouf, J.E. Keys, Jr., G.J. Nowacki, C. Carpenter, and W.H. McNab. 2007. Ecological subregions: sections and subsections of the conterminous United States, Scale 1:3,500,000. A.M. Sloan, cartographer. General Technical Report WO-76. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington, D.C.

McMahon, G., S.M. Gregonis, S.W. Waltman, J.M. Omernik, T.D. Thorson, J.A. Freeouf, A.H. Rorick, and J.E. Keys. 2001. Developing a spatial framework of common ecological regions for the conterminous United States. Environmental Management 28(3):293-316.

Omernik, J.M. 1987. Ecoregions of the conterminous United States. Map Supplement (scale 1:7,500,000). Annals of the Association of American Geographers 77(1):118-125.

Omernik, J.M. 1995. Ecoregions: A spatial framework for environmental management. In: Biological Assessment and Criteria: Tools for Water Resource Planning and Decision Making. W.S. Davis and T.P. Simon (eds.). Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL. pp. 49-62.

Omernik, J.M. 2004. Perspectives on the nature and definition of ecological regions. Environmental Management 34(Supplement 1):s27-s38.

Omernik, J.M., S.S. Chapman, R.A. Lillie, and R.T. Dumke. 2000. Ecoregions of Wisconsin. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters 88(2000):77-103.

U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service. 2006. Land resource regions and major land resource areas of the United States, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin. U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook 296. 669p. and map.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2010. Level III Ecoregions of the Continental United States, Map M-1 (revision of Omernik, 1987). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Corvallis, OR.

Woods, A.J., J.M. Omernik, C.S. Brockman, T.D. Gerber, W.D. Hosteter, and S.H. Azevedo. 1998. Ecoregions of Indiana and Ohio (2 sided color poster with map, descriptive text, summary tables, and photographs). U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA. Scale 1:1,500,000.

Woods, A.J., J.M. Omernik, C.L. Pederson, and B.C Moran. 2006. Level III and IV Ecoregions of Illinois. U.S. EPA Report, EPA/600/R-06/104. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Western Ecology Division, Corvallis, Oregon. 45p.

0 10050 MILES

0 100 20050 KILOMETERSSCALE 1:2,500,000

Level III ecoregionLevel IV ecoregionCounty boundaryState boundaryInternational boundary

Albers Equal Area ProjectionStandard Parallels 29.5° N and 45.5° N

Charleston

Columbus

Frankfort

Indianapolis

LansingMadison

Saint Paul

Springfield

Akron

Chicago

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Detroit

Louisville

Milwaukee

Minneapolis

Toledo

Saint Louis

L A K E S U P E R I O R

L A K E M I C H I G A N

L A K E E R I E

L A K E H U R O N

LAKEST. CLAIR

L A K EO F T H EW O O D S

UPPERRED LAKE

LOWERRED LAKE

C A N A D A

Guelph

Sarnia

Timmins

Sudbury

Windsor

St. Thomas

ThunderBay

SaultSte. Marie