Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and ClarkOften referred to as America's national epic of exploration, the 28-month Lewis and Clark expedition was certainly America's greatest odyssey. Commissioned in 1804 by Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off on the greatest wilderness trip ever recorded. Beginning in St. Louis, they navigated up the Missouri River and through the prairies, enduring a winter with the Mandan Indians in North Dakota, reaching the summit of the Rocky Mountains and then following the Columbia River to their final destination, the Pacific Ocean. Trained in natural history and in the methods of collecting plant and animal samples, Lewis and Clark carefully and meticulously recorded the conditions of the rivers, prairies, forests, mountains, and wildlife of pre-industrial America. Now, in this new edition of Our Natural History, Daniel B. Botkin, a distinguished botanist and naturalist, re-creates the grand journey--taking us on an exciting ecological adventure back to the landscape of the great American West. In retracing their steps, Botkin reveals what this western landscape actually looked like and how much it's been changed by modern civilization and technology. With fresh insight, Botkin shows us that from the explorers' observations, we can learn much about the environment of our past, our environment today, and what our environment might be in the future. Now with a new Afterword marking the 200th anniversary of the expedition, this timely and thought-provoking book captures our imagination and stimulates our sentiment with lessons about our environment and our place within it. Our Natural History offers a stunning and rare portrait of the rugged, beautiful, disappearing wilderness of the American West. |
Contents
A Road Through the Wilderness | 1 |
Meanders Nature and the Missouri River | 20 |
Wet and Dry Mud | 39 |
ThirtySeven Grizzly Bears in the Wilderness | 59 |
A Measured Journey | 87 |
Buffalo and Winter on the Plains Technology Meets Wilderness | 101 |
Wolves People and Biological Diversity | 128 |
Through the Mountains | 159 |
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Common terms and phrases
abundance American West animals began biological bowhead bowhead whale buffalo camp canoes catch century chance Clark expedition Clark saw Clark wrote Columbia River conservation continued countryside Dakota dams deer ecological encounters endangered species environment environmental problems estimate European extinction Falls feet fires fish flood Fontenelle Forest forests Fort Clatsop grass grizzly bears habitat harvest hills hunters hunting Indians journals journey killed kind land landscape Lewis and Clark Lewis wrote Mandan meanders measure Missouri River modern Montana moose mountains natural history Nebraska North America North Dakota observations ocean Oregon Pacific Northwest Park passed percent plains plants Platte population prairie predator presettlement prey rain reached recorded Sacagawea salmon scientific shore snow soil spawn Spirit Mound square miles stream timber tion traveled trees upwellings weather western whales wild wilderness wildlife winter wolf wolves wood Woody Guthrie