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The Rocky Mountains rise to immense heights with elevations ranging from 8,000 feet, looming above the grasslands and deserts that surround them. Steep gorges give way to views of ancient forests, migrating pronghorn and sparring bighorn sheep. This rugged, snow-capped landscape is etched in the American consciousness and has become a symbol of the frontier. Although Lewis and Clark expected these daunting mountains on their journey westward, their immense size startled them.
Many of the lands Lewis and Clark saw here are unchanged. Visitors today trek along the Lolo Pass, where the Corps passed through the snowy Bitterroots to the Snake River below. They canoe the waterways, and look down on sagebrush grasslands. Hauntingly beautiful, this region is being divided by development, which makes it difficult for wildlife to migrate and flourish. It is also forever changing the wild character of this expansive landscape.
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In Their Own Words... |
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"We proceeded on to the top of the dividing ridge from which I discovered immence ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow."
~ Lewis at Lehmi Pass,
looking on present-day
Idaho for the first time | | Looking down at the serpentine twists of Hells Canyon, home to the Salmon River, Clark agreed with the Shoshones that it was too rough to cross. This canyon — North America’s deepest river gorge and one of the most biologically significant landscapes in the West — is one of the places the Conservancy is working. This 1.15 million-acre site is home to more than 1,000 native plant species. Its sweeping grasslands are threatened by an invasion of yellow starthistle and other noxious weeds. To preserve it, the Conservancy is using satellite technology to pinpoint weeds. Teams of workers then eradicate them before they spread.
The Conservancy is doing more than simply protecting what remains: It is restoring what has been lost. At its 2,300-acre Ball Creek Ranch preserve, the Conservancy recently reconstructed a wetland area, an important piece of habitat for wildlife in the Kootenai River Valley. Nationwide, less than 50 percent of our country’s wetlands remain. In some parts of the country, like this river valley, nearly all wetlands are gone. The wetland on Ball Creek Ranch already is attracting ducks, raptors and songbirds. It also is one of a handful of places with populations of all the wildlife present at the time of Lewis and Clark’s expedition: grizzly bears, lynx, wolverines, elk, moose, caribou and migratory birds.
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