Provincial Park Grassland Ecology Photograph by Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Alberta Areas that are too dry for forests and too moist for deserts are often dominated by grasses and flowering plants with extensively developed roots. Soils in temperate grasslands have a deep organic layer and are known as Chernozemic soils.
Rough fescue is an erect, densely tuffed perennial that often has short rhizomoes.
It is common, however, in the Cypress Hills, the Wood Mountain, the Parklands, and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Alberta Range Plants and Their Classification Range and Pasture Management Postcard. Although you will no longer see any bison roaming on the grasses of the Cypress Hills, you may see coyotes, foxes, Richardson's Groundsquirrels, and badgers. When visiting the grasslands, be sure to look to the sky and keep your ears open.