The map illustrate the changes or increases in field frequency of Canada thistle in the Prairie provinces.
Each province is divided up into ecodistricts or in some cases groups of ecodistricts. Each ecodistrict is shaded one of six colors where brown represents more than a fifty percent change in field frequency of Canada thistle, maroon a twenty point one to fifty percent change, dark red a ten point one to twenty percent change, red a zero point one to ten percent change, light red represents absence from the area and white indicates that the species not surveyed.
Data for the map illustrating field frequency changes in the 1970s are as follows. Areas with more than fifty percent change include the interlake area of Manitoba south to the United States border, western Manitoba, east-central Saskatchewan in the Yorkton area. Areas of point one to ten percent change includes south-western Saskatchewan and south-eastern Alberta largely corresponding to the Prairies ecozone.