Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark

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Daniel Botkin sets out to cover the same ground Meriwether Lewis and William Clark did in their 1804-1806 survey of the Missouri River. He maintains that their careful observations on the native species, landscapes, and human residents of that great stretch of country should serve as models for avoiding "a glamorized utopian vision of nature" and seeing the landscape for what it really is. "One of the ways our knowledge of nature has changed since the time of Lewis and Clark," he writes, "is that the field of statistics has developed, and we can state our errors quantitatively." Not so much exploring as following old paths, we can also gather data more thoroughly than did our ecologist predecessors, knowing a little better what it is we are looking for. Botkin does just that in long discussions of salmon ecology and the mismanagement of natural resources.

Book Description

Often 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.

Customer Reviews:

The Lewis and Clark Journals: A Light On Today's Problems.......2004-05-25

Using the journals reporting the manifold findings of the Lewis And Clark Expedition, Dr. Botkin has contrasted the explorer's findings with today's conditions along the L&C Trail. He has a superb ability to ascertain the the broad parameters of a topic and then clearly and concisely delineate the details. He has the all-too-rare ability to cut through the complexities of a problem so as to reduce them to clear, comprehensible terms.This skill is of inestimable value in identifying ways to cope with, if not solve, seemingly insoluble problems.

Our Natural History.......2004-05-25

Dr. Botkin has a superb ability to ascertain the broad parameters of a topic and then clearly and concisely delineate the details. He has the all-too-rare ability to cut through the complexities of a problem, reducing them to clear,understandable terms. This skill is of inestimable value in identifying ways to cope with, if not solve, seemingly insoluble problems.

His use of baseline information provided by the journals of Lewis and Clark enables a reader to appreciate just how dramatically conditions have changed in the two centuries since the expedition penetrated and then methodically reported on what lay along and beyond the "wide Missouri."

The book is interesting, well written and a valuable resource for those interested in the changes wrought by the the settlement of the Louisiana Purchase.

An innovative look at Lewis and Clark.......2004-05-09

Unlike the previous reviewer, I find a book to be a fantastic success if it raises new questions and new perspectives for me. In this case, Dr. Botkin provides a very accessible natural history perpective on the Lewis and Clark Trail...greatly needed as popular interest ramps up with the bicentennial upon us. Whether your interest is in the rivers, plants, or animals of the trail, you will find thought-provoking reading here. It might even raise some questions for you!

:->

Not a good read.......2004-03-14

As an ecologist reading this book, I found that, for the most part, the writing was very superficial. Perhaps my science background makes me a overly critical reader, but the author seemed more interested in talking about his own accomplishments rather than the natural history. A disappointment - which I stopped reading in the middle.

Animals on the Trail with Lewis and Clark

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Animals on the Trail with Lewis and Clark
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0395914159

Book Description

In 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were sent
by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the largely uncharted western territory of North America, and thus became critical figures in America's expansion and major contributors to its scientific
scholarship. They observed and documented scores of animals, including the Great Plains wolf, mule deer, prairie dogs, grizzly bears, and salmon. Several species and subspecies of mammals, birds, and fish previously unknown to science were recorded for the first time; the information gathered would serve as the basis of scientific study for years to come.
Collected here are stunning photographs by William Muñoz that catalog the diverse array of wildlife witnessed by Lewis and Clark. Nature lovers and history buffs alike will be intrigued by this unusual account of the journey, whose bicentennial will soon be
celebrated. Route maps, suggestions for further reading, chronology of
animals sighted, index.

Beyond the Stony Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today

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A case of schizophrenia
Natural History Exploration of Lewis and Clark Expedition
Poor editing or ???

Beyond the Stony Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today
Daniel B. Botkin
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195162439

Book Description

America's great epic of exploration--the journey of Lewis and Clark--was also one of the most successful scientific expeditions in history. In notebooks filled with vivid and remarkably accurate descriptions of rivers, prairies, forests, mountains, native Americans, and wildlife, Lewis and Clark gave the world an image of wild country that has rarely been equaled. In this richly illustrated volume, which features more than one hundred photographs and maps, most in full color, noted ecologist and writer Daniel Botkin traces the footsteps of the two explorers as they journeyed from St. Louis, through the breathtaking vistas of the tall-grass prairie and Big Sky country, over the arduous Bitterroot Mountains on the ancient Lolo Trail, to arrive finally at the Pacific coast and its the rugged, rainy, and darkly wooded landscape. As we travel westward, Botkin introduces us to the natural wonders recorded by Lewis and Clark--still fresh portraits of a pristine land--and recounts their many dangerous, challenging, and sometimes strange adventures. Then in his own words he describes the same sites today, providing unique insights about our nation's changes to the land. For instance, the author recounts Lewis and Clark's travels through the great tall-grass prairie, vast plains that stretched to the horizon in every direction, stunningly beautiful land that, adds Botkin, with the eye of a concerned ecologist, has virtually disappeared today beneath the steel plow. This is only one of the key problems that are addressed on the trail we follow through this wonderful book. Others, such as the endangered grizzly bear and the vanishing California Condor, are brought to the reader's attention in prose both compelling and poignant. By the last page of this chronicle, we are filled with admiration for the natural beauty of the American West, a beauty that is slowly vanishing. An exquisitely illustrated and expertly written account of the western landscape, as it was seen by Lewis and Clark, Beyond the Stony Mountain recounts one of the great adventures of the American past while powerfully relating it to the American present.

Customer Reviews:

A case of schizophrenia.......2007-05-27

Lewis and Clark at the meridian of time:

Botkin uses the Lewis and Clark expedition as the basis from which to illustrate his lessons on evolution of landforms, flora, fauna, and above all, river ecology and riparian environments. His frame ranges from the earliest geologic eras to the present, using the wonderfully detailed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark diaries as the starting point for comparisons both back and forward through time. The spread of the Anglo-European population along the route of the Corps of Discovery, and the resultant economic pressures, are among the largest of the forces he describes. It's a very bright device, especially because the author quotes liberally from the diaries; the imagery and accuracy of their descriptions cannot be duplicated, and their notoriously inventive grammar and spelling are irresistible.

The charm of Lewis and Clark's naïve use of the English language does not transfer to modern authors, however. While this book has many pluses, a few of which I will touch on below, it is so badly edited that it is seriously distracting. Carelessness with respect to standard usage and other details, including above all, accuracy, casts aspersions (merited or not) on the reliability of an author's message.

Besides some oddities of organization and stylistic peculiarities, there are numerous minor and major grammatical mistakes, awkward punctuation (lots and lots of semi-colons), and factual errors. Here are two examples, the first an incoherent metaphor from page 46:

"The trees grew remarkably fast - some were twenty or thirty feet high and up to five inches in diameter - as thick as a wrist - after five years."

Whether diameter, circumference, or maybe radius, was the intended measure, none conjures up a tree or a wrist of feasible proportions.

On page 4, the identification of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers is reversed in the legend for a satellite photograph of the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers. Given that the theme of the book centers on watersheds, this is a critical mistake.

Production values are exceptionally poor. Many of photographs are so dark and muddy that the details the author is directing us to are lost. Several of Botkin's own are flecked with dirt (see, for example, pages 19, 51, 67, 78, and 154.) Even if from pre-digital originals, a careful scan, a few minutes at the hands of a competent PhotoShop user, and the cleaned up new prints with straightened horizons would have added to the clarity, and therefore to the credibility, of this text. Worse, colors in the some of the diagrams and figures are so far off from the keys that it's literally not possible to interpret them.

More suggestions for improvement:

Clear line-drawn maps would have added greatly to the utility of this book, as would a bibliography or further readings list. Finally, there are places in which interpretations of antiquated usages and extreme misspellings of Lewis and Clark quotes would have been in order For instance, on p. 185, Clark's description of river fauna refers to a "bottle nose." It's clear only that it's unlikely he was speaking of a dolphin.

The good news:

Having nailed this book for its distracting weaknesses, I want to emphasize that it nonetheless contains important messages delivered in a useful ways. The concepts are magnified by Botkin's deep appreciation of his objects of study: the geological, biological, and specifically human ecology of two of North America's great watersheds, those of the Missouri and the Columbia. It is also evident, in spite of his failure to demand quality editing (even on his own home page:[...] that Botkin is a competent scholar with a history of academic accomplishment. He served on the faculty at University of California, Santa Barbara, and brings the authority of a doctorate in biology/plant ecology from Rutgers to this work intended for the non-scholarly audience.

Besides retelling the ever-wonderful story of Lewis' and Clark's journey, highlighting their observational powers and dedication to accurately recording what they saw, Botkin's agenda includes enlightening the reader with regard to two popular misconceptions about how nature works.

Received wisdom has it that nature's normal state is one of "balance" and that descendants of the European colonists are responsible for disrupting the balance that existed in North America before their arrival. Commonsense suggests that all we have to do is to restore that balance to make it all right again. Botkin corrects this romantic notion with descriptions of the ever-changing character of the natural world, in which the apparently copasetic is always morphing in response to natural processes, and always vulnerable to major shocks, like volcanism, Biblical-scale floods, shifting continental plates, and ice ages, that completely rearrange the landscape and the flora and fauna with it.

Botkin is careful to point out that idea - contemporary to both Lewis and Clark and to today - that North America was in an Edenic state when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock is inaccurate, as in fact nature changes constantly with and without interference or remedial action by humans (as he notes on p. 164, "like the fickle Missouri, nature itself changes at many scales of time and space.") He cites evidence that in the era of Lewis and Clark the landscape was not as we imagine it to have been, citing descriptions from their writings of forests intentionally burned by the American Indians for their own various purposes that have since been overgrown by trees and that environmental groups now fight to preserve as "pristine" forestlands.

The author discusses how the first major North American urban areas grew up around rivers, and how their inner cities have survived the test of time as long as the "connection" with the waterways was maintained in social, humanistic, and aesthetic senses. St. Louis, while still economically and industrially attached to the Mississippi, erected effective barriers - such as the unfortunate placement of Interstate highways - to individual relationships with that water. He claims that in spite of expensive public efforts to restore St. Louis' inner city, none have truly succeeded, and it is because of the disconnect with the river.

Elsewhere, Botkin provides a fair discussion of the context in which past ruinations, such as damming the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, were in fact, economically beneficial, allowing riverside agriculture to flourish, at least in years of normal flows. But Botkin's surprising conclusion is that the salvation of the natural environment is in urbanization, positing that the more humans confine their living to the metropolitan, the more we will treasure the wild, and the less we will intrude upon it for living space. I find this to fall more in the "wishful-thinking" column than in the "useful-solutions" column, but it is nonetheless food for thought.

Natural History Exploration of Lewis and Clark Expedition.......2004-11-04

Dr. Dan Botkin has delivered an important and timely contribution to the voluminous literature associated with the on-going commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.

"Beyond the Stony Mountains," provides a synthetic and desperately needed overview of the Lewis and Clark expedition vis a vis the geography of the trail environments. While many of the titles associated with the Corps of Discovery provide detailed assessments of particular aspects, Botkin's most recent contribution provides an ecological historical perspective of the landscape dynamics associated with two hundred years of change. This change, documented in well-researched analysis spanning over ten years of work, highlights the interconnected cultural and ecological factors associated with landscape change. Moving beyond typical social, economic, and political history of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Botkin pinpoints key examples of the historical geography and provides insights unique to the ecological mind.

Moreover, Botkin's analysis proves a key assertion provided by Dr. Gary Moulton, Editor, "the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition." Despite copious examinations of the data and information contained in the Journals, it is possible to extract additional, meaningful analysis from the pages of the text. This analysis is, of course, dependent on the perspective of the investigator and the particular critical lense through which the Journals are examined. In Botkin's case, we have a holistic, naturalist's approach that defines the heuristic methodology. Again, such an analytical approach presents a substantial contribution to the literature and serves as a point of convergence for many researchers looking to document scientifically specific aspects of landscape dynamics through the story that is the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Botkin's contribution provides a wealth of new information, geographical theses for discussion, and a modern foundation for the continued examination of the significance of change along the Lewis and Clark trail. Provided that change is one of the few constants we can assign to the legacy of the Corps of Discovery, it is important that we dig deeply with Dr. Botkin, beneath the surface, and examine the geographical lessons contained in the Journals. It is only through a scientific assessment of where we have been that we have some sense of where we are and, most importantly, where we are going collectively as nation living in the shadow of the Stony Mountains.

Congratulations to Dr. Botkin for this worthwhile contribution.

Poor editing or ???.......2004-09-30

Factual errors in history or natural history can often be ignored as typographical, as in 'Wagons West' by Frank McLynn where he refers to the West coast tribe near which Lewis and Clark over-wintered in 1805-06 as the 'catslops' (yes, sic, cat slop, why not just call them cat-sick, funnier).

Worse is John Keegan in 'Fields of Battle' having Thomas Jefferson visiting Bent's Fort in 1833. Hope I'm that active at 90 years old, not to mention dead.

But in a book by an ecologist published by Oxford Press and selling at $38.00 retail, I kind of expect better than to find on page 4 a satellite photo of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri the caption of which, in no uncertain terms, describes the Missouri and the Illinois merging before meeting the Mississippi, both to the East of the Mississippi.

Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists (Second Edition) (Lewis & Clark Expedition)

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Wonderful book - could use more illustrations though

Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists (Second Edition) (Lewis & Clark Expedition)
Paul Russell Cutright
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0803264348

Book Description

First published in 1969, Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists remains the most comprehensive account of the scientific studies carried out by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their overland expedition to the Pacific Northwest and back in 1804–6. Summaries of the animals, plants, topographical features, and Indian tribes encountered are included at the end of each chapter devoted to the particular leg of the journey. A distinguished biologist, Paul Russell Cutright will be remembered for this landmark contribution to our understanding of the world that the expedition observed and recorded.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book - could use more illustrations though.......2003-09-07

This book is a fascinating natural history of the Lewis and Clark expedition that deals not just with flora and fauna but also with geology, geography, medicine, and the ethnography of the tribes the explorers met on their way to the Pacific and back. The story is told chronologically, with enough detail that if your main interest is natural history this could be the only history of the expedition you will want to read.

The author writes in a surprisingly readable style. The book's only drawback is the almost total lack of illustrations. Judging from the nice drawing on the cover, taken from a page of the explorers' journals, there were illustrations available but they didn't make it into the text. There were so many times when even a line drawing would have been helpful. At the very least some maps (one for each chapter, showing rivers, the explorers' path, and major landmarks along with maybe a light outline of present state boundaries) should be added to future editions.

Book Description

When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on their landmark journey of discovery in 1804, President Thomas Jefferson directed them to notice "the soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable productions." The explorers collected and preserved nearly two hundred seeds and specimens, from small prairie flowers to towering evergreen trees, many of them previously unknown to science. From the Indians they encountered, they learned which plants were ediblethus avoiding starvationand which could be used as building materials for their canoes and shelters. Looking to find a water route across North America, map the uncharted territory, and discuss peaceful trade with the Indians, Lewis and Clark became central figures in the country's westward expansion and major contributors to its scientific scholarship. In this welcome companion to Animals on the Trail with Lewis and Clark, Dorothy Hinshaw Patent traces the celebrated journey, examines the rich array of plant life the men sighted, and tells what became of the specimens over the ensuing two centuries. Adorned with William Muoz's beautiful photographs of a variety of colorful plants, this visual feast is sure to captivate nature lovers and historians alike. Route map, suggestions for further reading, chronology of plants collected, index.

Customer Reviews:

An informative book for elementary & middle school students.......2003-04-07

The harrowing 1804 expedition of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark across the American wilderness has been well-documented on a library full of history books. Western expansion was the dream of then-President Thomas Jefferson, and so the co-commanders Lewis and Clark began a cross-country trip through the pristine wilderness stretching across North America to the Pacific Ocean to not only stake a claim in the west, but also to collect specimens of plants and animals, map the unfamiliar frontier, find a northwest passage for men to follow, and to establish trade with Native American tribes. This informative book for elementary and middle school students touches on all those matters, but takes a unique approach by concentrating on one particular aspect of the expedition: North American flora and fauna. What new and exotic plants did Lewis and Clark see during their cross-country trip through the pristine wilderness? What specimens of plants and animals did they encounter? Why were trees so important to the success of the expedition? What new sources of food did they discover? How did they discover uses for wildflowers? What was the fate of Lewis's specimens? Most species collected were new to science at the time Lewis collected them, so this historical look at the scientific nature of the journey is a valuable one indeed. "Plants on the Trail with Lewis and Clark" will not only instill knowledge in its young readers, but also a healthy desire to preserve the natural and historical places of the western U.S.

Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains: A Natural History (Bison Original)

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An easy-to-read, easy-to-use informational reference

Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains: A Natural History (Bison Original)
Paul A. Johnsgard
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0803276184

Book Description

Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains is an easy-to-use reference on the wildlife that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark encountered during their 1804–6 Corps of Discovery expedition. More than one hundred animals and plants that were first carefully described and in some cases discovered by Lewis and Clark are identified here.

More than accounts of the regional flora and fauna, Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains examines the lasting importance of the expedition’s discoveries, the significance of the Plains plants and animals to local Native Americans, and the current status of Plains wildlife. Lavishly illustrated with Paul A. Johnsgard’s drawings of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and plants, the book also includes a guide to the Lewis and Clark sites of botanical and zoological interest and more than seventy sites where readers can follow in the footsteps of two of America’s greatest pioneering naturalists.

Customer Reviews:

An easy-to-read, easy-to-use informational reference.......2004-02-09

A bicentennial tribute to an incredible early American trailblazing exploratory expedition, Lewis And Clark On The Great Plains written and illustrated by Paul A. Johnsgard (Foundation Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska) is an easy-to-read, easy-to-use informational reference and instructional guide to the diverse wildlife that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark encountered in their 1804-6 Corps of Discovery expedition across the American wilderness. Black-and-white sketches, basic information, history, and basic scientific facts of each featured animal fill the pages of this strongly endorsed, straightforward, informed and scholarly reference.

Lewis and Clark's Mountain Wilds: A Site Guide to the Plants and Animals They Encountered in the Bitterroots

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Lewis and Clark's Mountain Wilds: A Site Guide to the Plants and Animals They Encountered in the Bitterroots
Sharon A. Ritter
Manufacturer: University of Idaho Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Natural History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

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Natural History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Burroughs rd
Manufacturer: Michigan State Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0870130587

The natural history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

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The natural history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Raymond Darwin Burroughs
Manufacturer: Michigan State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists (Second Edition) (Lewis & Clark Expedition)

ASIN: B0006AX1P0

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The Natural World of Lewis and Clark
David A. Dalton
Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0826217664

Product Description

Enhanced with unusual and informative illustrations, biologist David Dalton s new book reexamines Lewis and Clark s observations of the new plants and animals they encountered in the light of modern science. He shows how advances like DNA research, modern understanding of proteins, and the latest laboratory methods shed new light on the expedition s findings. Introducing the tools and techniques of today s science in a way that won t intimidate nonspecialist readers, he expertly balances botanical and zoological information, with coverage ranging from the extinction of large animals in North America a few thousand years ago to the expected effects of invasive species and climate change in the coming centuries.

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