The US Cities With the Most Natural Diversity

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The Environmental Protection Agency classifies the contiguous United States across dozens of different ecoregions – groupings of ecosystems with similar soil and landform characteristics. In the broadest aggregation, a bulk of the U.S. population lives in one of three ecoregions – the Eastern Temperature Forests, the Great Plains, and the Southern Semiarid Highlands.

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More detailed classifications, however, define a sprawling patchwork of 967 U.S. ecoregions, beginning with the temperate rainforests and coastal plains of the Pacific Northwest, climbing through the snow-capped Cascades and Sierra Nevada, dropping into the arid Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, crossing the sagebrush basins of the Great Basin and the alpine tundra of the Rockies, descending into the shortgrass and tallgrass prairies of the Great Plains, winding through the piney woods of East Texas and the bayous of Louisiana, rising into the Ozark and Appalachian Highlands, stretching across the Piedmont and Atlantic Coastal Plain, and ending in the subtropical mangroves and wetlands of southern Florida – with many basins, deltas, floodplains, and forests in between.

While a majority of cities lie within one ecoregion, there are a handful of cities that overlap several ecoregions, providing residents with a unique array of geographical phenomena. Napa, for example, crosses the Napa-Sonoma-Russian River Valleys, the North Coast Range Eastern Slopes, and the Napa-Sonoma-Lake Volcanic Highlands. New York City spans several ecoregions, including the Southern New England Coastal Plains and Hills, the Glaciated Triassic Lowlands and the Long Island Sound Coastal Lowland. And while geographic diversity is a function of city size, there are some smaller cities nestled in unique pockets of the American landscape where several distinct ecoregions adjoin. A closer look at the data identifies the cities that overlap the most unique ecoregions, revealing the cities with the greatest natural diversity.

To determine the cities with the most natural diversity, Climate Crisis 247 reviewed data on ecoregions from the EPA. Cities were ranked based on the number of Level IV ecoregions overlapping with their spatial boundaries. City boundaries are from the U.S. Census Bureau and are for 2023.

15. Napa, CA

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Napa-Sonoma-Russian River Valleys, North Coast Range Eastern Slopes, Napa-Sonoma-Lake Volcanic Highlands, Bay Flats, East Bay Hills/Western Diablo Range

14. Avondale, AZ

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Gila/Salt Intermediate Basins, Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Mountains, Central Sonoran/Colorado Desert Mountains, Middle Gila/Salt River Floodplains, Central Sonoran/Colorado Desert Basins

13. Goodyear, AZ

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Central Sonoran/Colorado Desert Basins, Gila/Salt Intermediate Basins, Central Sonoran/Colorado Desert Mountains, Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Mountains, Middle Gila/Salt River Floodplains

12. Columbia, SC

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Sand Hills, Carolina Slate Belt, Atlantic Southern Loam Plains, Southeastern Floodplains and Low Terraces, Southern Outer Piedmont

11. Little Rock, AR

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Fourche Mountains, Tertiary Uplands, Arkansas/Ouachita River Holocene Meander Belts, Arkansas River Floodplain, Central Hills, Ridges, and Valleys

10. Columbus, GA

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Sand Hills, Southern Outer Piedmont, Southern Hilly Gulf Coastal Plain, Southeastern Floodplains and Low Terraces, Fall Line Hills

9. Fayetteville, NC

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Atlantic Southern Loam Plains, Sand Hills, Southeastern Floodplains and Low Terraces, Rolling Coastal Plain, Carolina Flatwoods

8. San Jose, CA

Number of ecoregions spanned: 5
Ecoregions spanned: Bay Terraces/Lower Santa Clara Valley, East Bay Hills/Western Diablo Range, Bay Flats, Leeward Hills, Upper Santa Clara Valley

7. Buckeye, AZ

Number of ecoregions spanned: 6
Ecoregions spanned: Central Sonoran/Colorado Desert Basins, Gila/Salt Intermediate Basins, Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Mountains, Central Sonoran/Colorado Desert Mountains, Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Basins, Middle Gila/Salt River Floodplains

6. Fairfield, CA

Number of ecoregions spanned: 6
Ecoregions spanned: Suisun Terraces and Low Hills, Foothill Ridges and Valleys, East Bay Hills/Western Diablo Range, Napa-Sonoma-Lake Volcanic Highlands, Yolo Alluvial Fans, Delta

5. Salt Lake City, UT

Number of ecoregions spanned: 6
Ecoregions spanned: Moist Wasatch Front Footslopes, Salt Deserts, Semiarid Foothills, Shadscale-Dominated Saline Basins, Wasatch Montane Zone, Wetlands

4. Colorado Springs, CO

Number of ecoregions spanned: 6
Ecoregions spanned: Foothill Grasslands, Foothill Shrublands, Piedmont Plains and Tablelands, Crystalline Mid-Elevation Forests, Pine-Oak Woodlands, Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands and Savannas

3. New York, NY

Number of ecoregions spanned: 6
Ecoregions spanned: Long Island Sound Coastal Lowland, Southern New England Coastal Plains and Hills, Glaciated Triassic Lowlands, Barrier Islands/Coastal Marshes, Hackensack Meadowlands, Trap Rock and Conglomerate Uplands

2. Butte, MT

Number of ecoregions spanned: 7
Ecoregions spanned: Elkhorn Mountains-Boulder Batholith, Dry Intermontane Sagebrush Valleys, Eastern Pioneer Sedimentary Mountains, Pioneer-Anaconda Ranges, Dry Gneissic-Schistose-Volcanic Hills, Deer Lodge-Philipsburg-Avon Grassy Intermontane Hills and Valleys, Townsend Bas

1. Anaconda, MT

Number of ecoregions spanned: 8
Ecoregions spanned: Pioneer-Anaconda Ranges, Flint Creek-Anaconda Mountains, Deer Lodge-Philipsburg-Avon Grassy Intermontane Hills and Valleys, Big Hole, Alpine Zone, Elkhorn Mountains-Boulder Batholith, Eastern Batholith, Eastern Pioneer Sedimentary Mountains