Resurveying the Lewis and Clark Trail: Citizen Scientists Deploy Camera Traps to Map Modern Wildlife

Overview

In this episode, Short Wave follows a wildlife survey project that retraces the Lewis and Clark Trail to compare today’s wildlife with early 1800 observations. Regular people, along with scientists, set up motion-activated camera traps in a broad corridor around the trail, leave them for two months, and upload the images to a public database that is processed by AI for species and some individual identifications. The undertaking blends historical context with modern technology and citizen science to illuminate how wildlife distributions have changed over 200 years.

• Camera traps are deployed by everyday hikers and scientists along a 50‑mile buffer of the Lewis and Clark route.
• Photos are analyzed by AI to identify species and, for certain species, individuals.
• The project aims to contrast current wildlife presence and distribution with Lewis and Clark records from around 1800, while highlighting the role of Native communities in wildlife stewardship.
• The hosts emphasize both the exploratory fun and public educational value of the effort.

Background and premise

The podcast introduces a collaborative, public-facing wildlife survey organized by Bill McShay of the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute. The project retraces the Lewis and Clark Trail, not as a tourism expedition but as a systematic natural history survey, to assess how wildlife has shifted in the ensuing two centuries. Rather than flying in a specialized team, the initiative recruits regular people who live along the historical route together with scientists to participate in fieldwork. The goal is to raise awareness of wildlife around contemporary human activity and to produce data that wildlife managers and communities can use to safeguard biodiversity.

Fieldwork design and participants

The field segment is set in western Montana near the town of Lolo, just inside the Idaho boundary. A team comprised of Andre Dino, a Romanian master’s student; Maddie Turani, a cognitive ecologist and assistant professor at the University of Montana; and Kathryn Garrett, a Smithsonian intern, works with the NPR hosts to establish camera-trap grids. The fieldwork is described as hands-on and physically demanding, including bushwhacking to reach GPS waypoints and placing cameras at knee height on trees. The participants reflect a mix of local scientists and students as well as the general public who are drawn into a large-scale, long-duration data collection effort.

Camera traps and data processing

The core technology involves motion-activated cameras left in grids along the trail for two months in the warm seasons. The photos will populate a public database, and AI tools will identify species and, for some species, distinguish individuals. The approach is presented as a pragmatic blend of traditional wildlife observation with modern computing, illustrating how non-scientists can contribute to data collection that would be challenging for a single research team to achieve alone.

Historical context and scientific value

A key through line is Lewis and Clark’s early Natural History survey, which documented hundreds of plant and animal species. While the expedition’s record was not a formal scientific project by today’s standards, it laid the groundwork for understanding the western landscape’s biodiversity. The hosts note that many of the species Lewis and Clark described are now rare or have shifted their ranges due to habitat change, damming of rivers, and expanding human activity. The resurvey aims to offer a modern perspective on biodiversity distribution and to demonstrate how wildlife persists in landscapes shaped by people.

Public engagement and implications

The show frames the project as citizen science with potential benefits for Native communities who have managed and preserved wildlife in their regions for generations. Bill emphasizes that the data could help scientists and wildlife managers locate the best areas for conservation and restoration while honoring indigenous perspectives and knowledge. The probes along the trail also reveal how wildlife coexists with people when managed thoughtfully, challenging the idea that wildlife must be segregated from human spaces.

Takeaways

The podcast closes with reflections on the value of hands-on fieldwork, the usefulness of AI in processing large image sets, and the importance of public participation in understanding ecosystem health. Listeners are invited to follow the NPR Short Wave feed for updates on the expedition and related scientific findings.