Bălți Steppe
Bălți Steppe (Romanian: Stepa Bălțului), also Beltsy Steppe (Russian: Бельцкая степь) is a hilly area with few trees (apart from those near rivers Dniestr, Răut and numerous lakes and creeks), dominated by agriculturally cultivated land, and occasionally by grasses and shrubs, in the northern part of Moldova. It is characterised by moderate but unstable seasons, generally hot summers and cold winters.
The Bălţi Steppe has a total surface of 1,920 km2, 2.7 per cent (51 km2) of it are forests. The region, as the rest of Moldova, is traditionally an agricultural area, favored by several factors, such as the chernozem (black earth).
The untouched natural richness of the northern Moldavian region became known as Bălți steppe only in the beginning of the last century.
As a geographic area Bălți steppe is one of the three components of the Moldavian Plain, which in turn is one of the six compenents of the Moldavian Plateau. Despite the name, Bălți steppe is not a flatland, but a region dotted with hills.
In Moldova, Bălţi steppe, 1,920 km2, and Middle Prut Valley, 2,930 km2 are sometimes together referred to as Moldavian Plain, however one should be warned that in Romania the latter term is used as a synonym for the Jijia Plain. Before 1940 the term used to mean Jijia Plain plus Middle Prut Valley plus Bălți steppe, because the three regions have an identical relief and natural vegetation. To make the things even more complicated, in Moldova sometimes Bălți steppe and Middle Prut Valley are lumped together into one term, Bălți steppe. Together, they cover the municipality of Bălți, the districts of Glodeni, Rîșcani, and Fălești, as well as parts of Drochia, Sângerei, and Ungheni districts.
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Wikipedia