Climate change is reshaping the world as we know it. It has serious consequences for people and ecosystems alike—including those that live along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. The trail gives us a unique opportunity to look at the challenge of climate change across space and time. Its 4,900 miles—and iconic story—can tell us a lot about what climate change looks like, how it happened, and where to go from here. As human-caused climate change moves us into uncharted territory, we need to work together to navigate the change. Along the way, we can learn from nature, from each other, and from our history. People have risen to big challenges before. Now, it's time to do it again. 
NPS Photo Learning from Lewis and ClarkHave you ever worked hard to achieve a goal, even though it was frightening? As Lewis and Clark prepared to leave on their expedition in the spring of 1803, the task ahead of them was daunting. After all, they were headed into a place they did not know, and could not be sure what they would encounter along the way. But they decided that their mission was important, and worth trying, even though it was challenging. So, they prepared. Lewis asked for help from experts to learn the science that could be useful on the journey. He and Clark collected supplies, made plans, and assembled an expedition party with many different people, each with skills to contribute to the mission. They set off in the spring of 1803. Over the next three and a half years, the Corps of Discovery traveled more than 8,000 miles. They had to persevere through hardships along the way, from animal encounters to disease and unexpected weather. But they were able to make it by working together. Everyone played a role according to their strengths—even the dog! Because they traveled through land that Indigenous Peoples had stewarded since time immemorial, they also worked together with people outside the group. The party asked for and accepted directions, supplies, and shelter from many different Tribal Nations along their route. Now, as we face a future shaped by climate change, we have a lot to learn from Lewis and Clark and their expedition party. A daunting challenge faces us, but the mission is too important to ignore. We can succeed if we all work together—we just have to persevere on the journey. 
NPS Photo How did we get here?People’s greenhouse gas emissions are a major driver of modern climate change. Unlike climate change that happened in the geologic past, we are now seeing trends in weather and temperatures that are caused by humans. When we release greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, they stay in the atmosphere and act like a blanket that traps heat. The more greenhouse gases we release, the more heat gets trapped. Most of our greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, or natural gas. As we continue to burn fossil fuels, climate change intensifies, and creates big problems for people and wildlife. Climate change along the trailWhat has been happening with climate change, and what is going to happen?Climate change affects everyone, everywhere. However, those impacts might play out differently—or be more or less extreme—in different places. The length of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail gives us a great opportunity to look at climate change on a broad scale and see those similarities and differences. TemperaturesNo matter where you are, temperatures are increasing. And they are going to keep rising—but exactly how much depends on us. Use the slider below to compare how much temperatures are expected to increase in two different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios: one where people keep burning fossil fuels at a high rate (right), and one with lower emissions (left). The colors represent how much scientists predict average temperatures will go up by 2099, compared to temperatures before 20001. 
Extreme precipitationClimate change is also causing more extreme precipitation. It can be hard to say whether the total amount of rain and snow in any given place will go up or down, but science shows that warming temperatures lead to extreme precipitation events happening more often. When these extreme events happen, a lot of rain, sleet, or snow is released in a much shorter amount of time than normal. Those heavy precipitation events are followed by drier, and often longer, periods of drought. More extreme precipitation events, combined with extreme temperatures, cause lots of problems. Wildfires, tornadoes, flooding, and droughts are becoming more common and more intense across the country2. Other climate impactsUse the tabs below to explore other ways climate change impacts people and ecosystems along the trail. When Lewis and Clark set out on their expedition, one of their goals was to catalog the plant life they saw along the way. In their journals, they took detailed notes about the characteristics of species they saw. Their notes were the first written descriptions of 178 plants for Western science, although many of them were already known and even shown to them by Indigenous Peoples encountered along the way! Climate change affects weather conditions, which change habitat for plants. In forests, this means some types of common trees might not thrive in the same places in the future. Sometimes, they find new habitat in places with better conditions. Other times, they will not survive at all. This is happening at Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, along the Lewis and Clark trail. At Ohio River Islands, 39% of trees that are common now are expected to have little or no habitat there by 21003. That is a huge change in the forest’s ecology, and will impact other plants and animals, as well as humans. Learn more: For much of their expedition, the Corps of Discovery traveled through the prairies of the Great Plains. Prairies are really important in our fight against climate change. They store carbon in plants and in the soil, taking it out of the atmosphere and preventing it from contributing to climate change. Scientists have estimated that the Great Plains sequester up to 99 teragrams of carbon every year4 – as much carbon as is stored by 115 million acres of forest!5 But climate change makes the prairie’s ecosystems weaker, which makes it harder for them to store carbon. One way this happens is water. With higher temperatures and more droughts, there is generally less water available to plants, animals, and people. People use more water, or it evaporates before it can seep into the Ogallala-High Plains aquifer, which feeds the Great Plains. Science shows that there is less water in the Ogallala aquifer recently than there used to be6. That makes it harder for everyone to get the water they need. When plants and animals have trouble surviving, the ecosystem gets less healthy—and stores less carbon. The expedition party documented the distribution of many species that they saw on the journey. Their journals are full of notes about the animals they encountered along the way. Climate change is affecting wildlife, and for some animals, it is causing irreparable harm. Animals that rely on certain conditions have to move to new, more hospitable places, or they cannot survive. Rising temperatures, vegetation changes, and extreme conditions force them out of places that used to be their homes. For example, as rivers change, fish that rely on the river’s historical patterns struggle. Scientists have also made predictions about how climate change will affect birds around the country. At Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, along the trail, climate change means that many native species of birds will be forced to leave. Around 1/3 (33.8%) of the bird species found at Knife River are expected to either have worse habitat or no habitat at all by the year 20507. Some will move to new places. Others will go extinct. That is a huge shift. When such a large portion of wildlife move, or become extinct, it has big impacts on the rest of the ecosystem. But if we take action, we can protect the birds and their habitat. Learn more: For most of their journey, the Lewis and Clark expedition followed rivers. Climate change has devastating impacts on those rivers and the ecosystems around them. The amount of water entering rivers is less consistent. As temperatures get hotter, precipitation that would have been snow is often falling as rain. Rain enters rivers all at once, rather than melting slowly over a longer period of time. So rivers get more water—sometimes enough to flood—when it rains. And when it is not raining, they get drier, since they do not get water released from melting snow. Climate change can also make water in rivers lower quality. Extreme storms push pollutants into the water through runoff. This can kill animals, like fish, and make water unsafe to drink. Learn more: Once Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean, they spent a winter at Fort Clatsop, on the border of what is now Oregon and Washington. Like all coastal areas, Fort Clatsop—and Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, which protects the area—is vulnerable to sea level rise. By 2100, scientists predict that sea levels at Fort Clatsop could rise more than five feet, if greenhouse gas emissions remain high8. That would put coastal infrastructure at risk. It would also take away habitat from plants and animals that rely on the coastal wetland. But if we reduce our emissions, we could limit the sea level rise to less than one foot. That makes a big difference! Learn more: The Lewis and Clark party set out on a dangerous task, but only one member of the Corps died on the journey. He was not killed by an animal, or a fight, but by disease. Climate change has major impacts on human health. When we are exposed to more extreme conditions, we can get hurt. That ranges from extreme weather events, like storms or fires, to heat exposure as temperatures warm up. People in cities are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, since heat is more intense in places without a lot of trees or green space. Climate change can make allergies worse, and allergy seasons longer. It can also expose us to new diseases we might not be ready for. Just like the Lewis and Clark party, we are vulnerable to health impacts. Climate change is making it harder to stay healthy. Learn more: Indigenous Peoples have lived on the land now known as the Lewis and Clark Trail since time immemorial. Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized groups tend to feel the impacts of climate change the most, even though they contribute the least to greenhouse gas emissions9. Climate change threatens Indigenous stewardship practices and ways of life. In many places, Indigenous cultural survival depends on healthy ecosystems, water, and wildlife. Climate change is damaging to all these things. Tribal Nations are responding to climate change. Many Indigenous Peoples, like the Nez Perce, have strong climate change programs. With these programs, they both adapt to shifting conditions from climate change and reduce their carbon emissions. Learn more: 
NPS Photo Where do we go from here?Climate change poses a daunting challenge, but we know that ensuring an inhabitable, comfortable, and biodiverse world depends on us. If we take action, we can make a big difference. In order to work toward a brighter future for everyone, we must use all the tools available to us. One important resource is history. Learning from the stories of our past can help inform how we approach the future. That way, we can emulate decisions that worked, and avoid repeating old mistakes. What can we learn about our response to climate change from the Lewis and Clark expedition? As we respond to climate change, we will face many challenges along the way. The Lewis and Clark expedition party also faced challenges. They overcame them by responding to new situations with creativity and resilience. They journey was difficult, but they persevered and worked together to solve problems. Every person played their part. The same characteristics will help us respond to climate change. We will need to be resilient in response to challenges, like extreme weather conditions. Creativity will help us come up with new solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Throughout, we will need to work together, with everyone playing the role that best suits them. Lewis and Clark took detailed notes on their journey. Over the two years of the expedition, they wrote almost five thousand pages of journals! They created maps and kept thorough records of the landscape, wildlife, and people they encountered along the way. They also recorded Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) that had been generously shared with them by the Indigenous Peoples they met. TEK is traditionally shared orally, so Lewis and Clark’s journals were one of the first times this knowledge was documented in writing! Indigenous Peoples shared information with Lewis and Clark about edible plants, weather, travel routes, and place names. Lewis and Clark also relied on traditional knowledge shared by Indigenous People in the expedition party, like Sacagawea and several Metís men. Today, the expedition journals are an important tool as we trace the story of climate change. National Park Service scientists can compare Lewis and Clark’s notes about the conditions they experienced to how things are now, and see how much has changed over time. Like Lewis and Clark, modern scientists keep detailed records. All these notes help us keep track of how climate change impacts the land. How much are things changing, and how fast? Answering these questions lets us form our response to climate change around scientific information. Traditional Ecological Knowledge is also uniquely helpful in our fight against climate change. TEK includes knowledge of how people have adapted to changes in the past, which can show us how we might move forward into the future. The National Park Service is working to increase co-stewardship lands with Tribal Nations. Part of co-stewardship is respectfully and appropriately incorporating TEK, alongside Western science, into park decisions—including decisions about climate change. The story of the Lewis and Clark expedition is complicated. As we consider what lessons we can learn from this story, it is important to see it in all its complexity. After all, we still feel the impacts from the expedition, and some of them are tangled up in climate change. One of these is the way the expedition impacted Indigenous Peoples. Thomas Jefferson thought that the Lewis and Clark expedition could help the U.S. get land from Indigenous Peoples. According to a note he sent to Congress, Jefferson hoped that Lewis and Clark could use trade to encourage Indigenous Peoples to adopt more agricultural lifestyles, so they would be more willing to sell their hunting lands10. In the end, the U.S. did get the land, and the Lewis and Clark expedition is part of that story. The expedition set the stage for years of violence to come, in which many Indigenous Peoples were forced off of their land. This matters for climate change because Indigenous stewardship practices can help in the fight against climate change. Studies show that Indigenous Peoples around the world use stewardship practices that promote biodiversity and ecosystem resilience11. These are really important for climate change, since they help keep ecosystems healthy in the face of extreme conditions. Healthier ecosystems store more carbon and provide more habitat for wildlife. When, in many places, Indigenous Peoples were pushed off of the land, their stewardship practices went with them. That is one part of the story of how we got to this moment of climate crisis. Stories like this show us that it is crucial for climate change response to include everyone. And it shows that it is important to have particular space for people with traditional knowledge and deep connections to the land. That knowledge gives insight into what a sustainable future looks like. Stories from the past can show us how excluding voices led to harm. How can we learn from those stories, and imagine a better future? Doing our part
NPS Photo The National Park Service is doing our part to be sustainable, and keep parks and people safe from the impacts of climate change. Our climate change response strategy lays out four main ways we are working on this.
Learn more about sustainability at park sites along the trail: 
NPS Photo Doing your partEveryone has a role to play in response to climate change. Think about what resources you have, or what you enjoy doing. Is there a connection between those things and climate action? You do not have to do it by yourself. Lewis and Clark did not face the challenge of their expedition on their own! They worked with others both in and out of their expedition party, and they would not have succeeded on their journey without the help of Indigenous Nations along the way. In the same way, we can face the challenge of climate change by working together. You can make a big difference when you work with the people around you. Here some ideas of ways you can make a difference in your community:
For the Climate Change Tree Atlas: Iverson, L.R.; Prasad, A.M.; Peters, M.P.; Matthews, S.N. 2019. Facilitating Adaptive Forest Management under Climate Change: A Spatially Specific Synthesis of 125 Species for Habitat Changes and Assisted Migration over the Eastern United States. Forests. 10(11): 989. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10110989.
These numbers came the Astoria, Oregon local scenario projections for the year 2100, under the “Intermediate Low” and “High” sea level rise scenarios.
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Last updated: July 10, 2024