The Palouse is a region of rolling agricultural uplands in southeastern Washington and northern Idaho. The hills are formed from deep deposits of loess, a fine windblown silt laid over Columbia River basalt. Around Pullman the deposits range from less than a foot to more than 150 feet thick, and their deep soils support dryland farming on slopes that can reach 60 percent.

The name Palouse comes from the Palús, a Sahaptin-speaking people whose village stood near the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers. Native bunchgrass prairie once covered the uplands; by 1900 more than 90 percent had been converted to agriculture. The land remains productive and vulnerable — erosion continues on steep slopes, while direct seeding, riparian restoration, and prairie conservation hold what remains.