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Study dispels myth of American West The
Associated Press Using the 1804-1806 journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the two say the vision of a pristine American West prior to the arrival of European-American settlers is a myth. Instead, they found that Indian tribes already had diminished and displaced wildlife populations. The study, conducted at Oregon State University, collected detailed journal data on the numbers and species of animals killed by the explorers along with locations of native villages. ``The results show considerable human influence on wildlife even under relatively low human population densities,'' Andrea S. Laliberte and William J. Ripple stated in their report in the journal Bioscience. ``Areas with denser human population, such as the Columbia Basin and the Pacific Coast, had lower species diversity and a lower abundance of large mammals.'' Humans always have had an impact on their surroundings, said Laliberte, who received her doctorate from OSU in June and is a remote sensing specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at New Mexico State University. Ripple, an OSU forestry professor and director of the university's Environmental Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory, said the study's findings matter because modern wildlife and environmental management practices often use pre-European settlement as a baseline. ``This study brings out the issue of what should be considered natural conditions,'' Ripple said. ``How far back in time do you need to go in order to capture what the natural conditions may be? Typically, people use pre-European times as the standard for `natural,' and this study indicates there should be more consideration in terms of aboriginal influences on the ecosystem.'' Laliberte said she found the journals to be a valuable source of information about wildlife. The scientists kept data on the nine mammals that were recorded as having been hunted by expedition members: deer, elk, bison, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, grizzly bear, black bear, wolf and beaver. The expedition also hunted waterfowl. Laliberte and Ripple also determined the distances to the nearest settlement from 506 of Lewis and Clark's campsites and the density of the settlements within a 30-mile radius around the campsites. They found that the number of species was highest in areas with little human settlement. ``Conversely, the fewest species were seen in areas of higher settlement density, such as the Columbia Basin and the Cascades-Pacific Coast region,'' their report said. Clark noted in his journal in August 1806 that ``in the country between the nations which are at war with each other the greatest numbers of wild animals are to be found.'' Ripple said fewer people inhabited large areas during tribal warfare to avoid risky war zones. The report said the Fort Clatsop area near present-day Astoria, where the expedition spent the winter of 1805-06, appeared to be an exception. Twelve Native American settlements were within 30 miles of Fort Clatsop, yet the expedition's hunters managed to kill 116 elk in 3 1/2 months. Lewis noted that those tribes lived largely on fish, not game, which
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