Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark

by Daniel B. Botkin

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.

Genres: History, Nature, Nonfiction, American History, Natural History

328 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 1995

About the author

Daniel Botkin is a scientist, biologist, ecologist, physicist, professor, author and journalist. Renowned for his scientific contributions in ecology and environment, he has also worked as a professional journalist and has degrees in physics, biology, and literature. He is best known for the development of the first successful computer simulation in ecology, a computer model of forest growth that has developed into a sub-discipline in this field, with more than 50 versions in use worldwide. Botkin has also been a pioneer in the study of ecosystems and wilderness and the application of advanced technology to ecology. He has helped develop major national programs in ecology, including the National Science Foundation’s Long-term Ecological Research Program and NASA’s Mission to Earth. He has directed research on wilderness and natural parks around the world and is a leader in the application of environmental sciences to solve complex environmental problems.

Botkin has been a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1979. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara. He has been President and Founder of The Center for the Study of the Environment, a non-profit research and educational corporation. He serves on the board of the Environmental Literacy Council, the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also been a fellow at the Rockefeller Bellagio Institute in Italy and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Among his awards are the The 2012 The Honorable John C. Pritzlaff Conservation Award; Astor Lectureship, Oxford University; The 2004 Tex and Academic Authors Association Texty Award for best textbook of 2003; The Fernow Award for Outstanding Contributions in International Forestry; and the Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development.

For more information visit www.danielbotkin.com or follow him on Twitter @danielbotkin.

Reviews

[Brian Thorson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone unfamiliar with the writings of Lewis and Clark, reading Botkin’s book weaving the historical account of Lewis and Clark with contemporary scientific thought was interesting. The interconnectedness of the myriad systems at work within each environment is compounded by the challenges of assessing causal relationships over time measures in decades and centuries.

I’m now also interested in reading Lewis and Clark’s journals.

[Leopold Schwarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and interestingly written. I didn’t like his simplistic calculations

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It wasn't quite what I thought it'd be, but it still satisfied some of the desires that led me to pick up the book in the first place.

The start and end locations of the Lewis and Clark expedition are both dear to me. I lived in St. Louis for three years and quickly fell in love with the city (against all expectations!), and one of my favorite places to hike was a trail along the Missouri river that was marked as a Lewis & Clark spot. The Columbia River Gorge that separates Oregon and Washington is currently my favorite spot in the entire country (someday I will live there... someday...) and I just returned from another awesome trip to that region. St. Louis and the Columbia River Gorge are such different places, but they are brought together through the Lewis & Clark expedition.

My recent trip to the Gorge--where I saw many L&C trail signs and informative displays--reminded me of my desire to learn more about the L&C expedition. I was browsing the L&C section in Powell's bookstore (yes, the expedition has an entire section devoted to it!), looking for a book that covered the most interesting parts of the expedition with some modern commentary, and this book seemed to fit that. The book is described as an examination of the regions L&C visited, comparing the land and animals during L&C's time to today. This isn't the best description. Instead, I would say that the book is about conservation (of the environment and indigenous species), using L&C's journals as a way to understand what the continent was like before European influence.

Although the book wasn't quite what I expected, it worked out just fine because I definitely care about conserving the environment and I'm interested in the "natural" state of nature compared to what people have done to nature. The book satisfied my desire to learn more about the L&C expedition, although I actually learned more about the region than the expedition. (But that's fine with me! I love the west. Everything between St. Louis and the Pacific Ocean = LOVE! I do not like living on the east coast. Arghh.)

This book is old (originally published in 1995), but it didn't feel too outdated. (The author frequently mentioned the "growing" environmentalism movement, and I can't help but think that people probably care less about the environment now than they did in the early 1990s. I could be wrong, of course.) The writing could be a little repetitive at times (I suppose the author underestimated readers' memory), and there were some dry spots where the author would list all of L&C's experiences from their journals to arrive at calculations (e.g., the author would list the expedition's encounters with grizzly bears by date and frequency. I didn't read need to see that; I trust the author can count them accurately). The author also strayed off topic with some frequency. All in all, though, it was an interesting book and I certainly learned from it.

[JD · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was very interesting to me and a good read, but not exactly what I expected when I started reading the book. The author is making an attempt to show how guidelines can be established for some of our important species by looking back at the species that the Corps of Discovery found and reported during their journey through lands that had not been seen or changed by the migration of settlers from Europe and Eastern America. This information can assist in forming the basis for a target population of each species that modern conservation groups can use as guidelines for maintaining those species into the future.
The author points out that nature is always changing and that the environment for any given species changes over time with or without the influence of modern population pressures.
While the big issues for conservation groups are not answered in this work, a basis for making these studies and establishing well researched target populations of specific wild species is given as a basis for how to arrive at rational numbers and guidelines.
If you are looking for an adventure story, as Lewis and Clark's expedition certainly was, then this is not the book. It is targeted for readers interested in conservation studies and how to develop proper guidelines in the pursuit of target numbers for wild populations of various animals.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more with this book. The author's thesis is to use the Lewis and Clark expedition and compare it to current issues and conditions in the natural history of the area. There were some interesting sections, but the book suffers from a faintly pedantic tone. Additionally, the analysis feels superficial and a bit self-absorbed. That being said, I still give credit for originality and research that combines historical and contemporary perspectives. Not a bad book, but it could have been much better. It was also disappointing to see so many copyediting errors in a paperback reprint.

[Billy]

Combines natural geography with my heavy interest in the Corps of Discovery.
Its biggest environmental lesson is the overlooked notion that the environment is dynamic and not static, though environmental policies for species preservation treat it as static...chapters on plains buffalo. mtn grizzlies and pacific northwest salmon are the highlights so far. The author also traces the route of the expedition to explore the natural and man-made differences that have come to pass over the past 200 years.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author examines how our cultural reference points have changed how we view nature and its relationship to us over time. He points out that balance is needed; that while conservation is imperative, we need to understand the environment well enough that we don't overdo it at the expense of human needs unnecessarily. He took his lessons from Lewis and Clark, so had my attention from the start.

[Kevin Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a segmented look at various natural history aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Interesting insights about plant and animal densities and populations prior to European encroachment keep attention throughout. As with many works that switch topics with each chapter, personal interests will provide high and low levels of interest throughout the book.