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   Northwestern Great Plains Ecoregion Key
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Stream 1st-2nd order or <30 miles long  
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Stream 3rd-5th order or 30 - 100 miles long  
Great Plains Prairie Stream
1 
River >5th order or >100 miles long   Medium Prairie River
1 
River >5th order and >200 river miles long and a direct tributary to the Yellowstone or Missouri River (Little Missouri, Tongue, Bighorn and Powder Rivers)  
Large Prairie River
Yellowstone River downstream from Billings or the Missouri River downstream from Great Falls
 
Large Valley River
   
Perennial 1st or 2nd order stream above 1000m elevation in the Wolf Mountains, Powder River Basin or Missouri Breaks
 
Great Plains Perennial Spring
Small (< 100m2 in area), low gradient intermittent pools separated by long breaks of dry stream bed, typically lacks downstream connectivity to a large mainstem river
 
Great Plains Intermittent Stream
 

Ecoregions are based on Omernik’s Level III Ecoregion delineations (see Woods, A.J. et al. 2002. Ecoregions of Montana. 2nd edition poster). The Northwestern Great Plains are the Northwestern Great Plains Level III Ecoregion (#43).