>>2778491>OP posts a map of the Great Plains>Is it true the grasslands were all forest before they chopped it down and killed the beavers?>They were dispersed wetlands with riparian forests>in the midwest>How many beavers were in the great Midwest drainage basin?>in the midwest >topic is great plains>What did Louis and Clark see everywhere>Vast plains>"void of timber>"boundless pasture">you're talking about a single expedition>backpedaling>You admitted Lewis and Clark saw beavers everywhere but pretend those beavers didn't live on trees.You have never been to Montana or the Dakotas so you dont know. The riparian habitat on the Great Plains extends only yards from the water source. So, while there being a lot of creeks and some rivers for beavers to thrive, the VAST majority of the countryside is semi-arid plains DEVOID of trees. Lewis and Clark often had trouble finding wood for camp despite them being on the banks of the river. So, there were def a lot of beavers on the creeks (which is why Colter turned around and went back) but that does not translate to the Great Plains actually being covered forests. Only a retard would think or suggest that.
PicRel is decision point. L&C spent 5 days here deciding which way to go. It hasnt changed much since then. The Missouri is the biggest river in the Great plains. You can see the riparian habitat is confined the river bottom which is quite small in relation to the surrounding plains. As Patrick Gass described the headwaters of the Missouri:
"a verry pleasant part of the country in this valley, which appears to be 10 or 12 miles wide all Smooth prarie except a fiew groves of cotton trees willows & bushes beaver dams &C. on the River"
TLDR: the Great Plains are not the midwest. Lewis and Clark encountered a lot of beavers on the waterways in the great plains but those water ways constitute a tiny portion of the landscape. The Great Plains were not covered in forest before they killed all the beavers.
