[2] This is an area of rolling hills with lakes both small and large, wetlands, and rocky outcrops on the Canadian Shield in northern Saskatchewan, north-central Manitoba (north and east of Lake Winnipeg) and Northwestern Ontario.

There are patches of permafrost throughout[1] Much of the landscape, including the Athabasca Plain, is the boreal forest that covers so much of Canada at this latitude, consisting of black spruce (Picea mariana), jack pine (Pinus banksiana), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), white birch (Betula papyrifera), balsam poplars, white spruce (Picea glauca), and balsam fir (Abies balsamea).

The dominant tree of the wetlands is black spruce, while the rocky outcrops are covered with lichens.

Birds include ducks, geese, American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), sandhill crane (Grus canadensis), spruce grouse (Falcipennis canadensis), sharp-tailed grouse (Tympahuchus phasianellus), willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus), common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), common raven (Corvus corax), common loon (Gavia immer), bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis), northern hawk owl (Surnia ulula), great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus) and double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus).

Most of the natural forest remains intact with most alteration having occurred in Manitoba due to logging, mining and hydro-electric power generation.