SEO HEAD: Belva Jensen leads Lewis and Clark trail

The head of the biology department of the College of Southern Maryland retraces the 3,500-mile Lewis and Clark trek by water to sample the once-pure waters to develop and compare an index of pollution. CSM biology head leads environmental expedition Belva Jensen retraces Lewis and Clark trail to analyze ecological findings By Bee Nguyen She looked up at the smoking hills, back down at her notes, and then up once more. She held her breath as she realized these were the Gates of the Mountain that she read about in Meriwether Lewis journal and she was really on an expedition across the Louisiana Territory. Belva Jensen retraced the Lewis and Clark trail of 1804, observing wildlife and the environment with a band of college students and her husband. We took a full two-and-one-half

It was just amazing to have that experience making the comparison,

-Belva Jensen

months to complete the trip and it was a wonderful experience, said Jensen. Jensen was the biology head at the College of Southern Maryland in 1968 where she pushed for a higher curriculum with her environmental discoveries, including her biological findings

during her trek through the Northwest. Traveling by canoe and car, Jensen and her students toured 3,500 miles through 11 western states studying water, flora and fauna. Jensens goal was to compare the pollution of the environment Lewis and Clark observed and wrote about in their journals in 1804 to the present day of 1968. (more)

How much things had changed and how little they'd changed. I kept a copy of the original journals with me so that I could tell where we were exactly and there's a very interesting place in Lewis' journal where he talks about the hills as though they were on fire, smoking, and described things like that, and we happened to come around up close to Gates of the Mountain, I think up in that area in Montana, and there they were! There were the hills and this smoking coming out of them. I was reading it and at the end it said - Lewis said he was alarmed because the woods on the other side of the river were on fire and they tried to put them output this fire out, which they did. It was so weird because there was a fire when we finally came out. It was just amazing to have that experiencemaking the comparison," said Jensen. The beginning Jensen came up with the idea to plan an expedition, just for fun:
1968 Belva Jensen and students retraced the Lewis and Clark trail to compare ecological findings of pollution. 1969 Pollution abatement technology is implemented at the College of Southern Maryland because of Jensens influence. 1970 Jensen helped to develop an Energy Crisis course for CSM to spread environmental awareness. 1982 Jensen helped to develop the Maryland Center for Environmental Training which is adopted by the University of Maryland. KEY DATES 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark conducted the first American overland expedition of the West and Pacific Northwest.

We were all sitting on the deck one time and we were talking about things and such, and Lewis and Clark came up and we just thought, why not just do it! said Jensen. The plan was to travel along the water and take samples to compare them to the present and to develop an index of pollution. I just wanted to see what would happen and bring back the data to the college. (more)

Jensen had no intention of bringing about a change or truly making a mark on the environmental world, but during the trip she realized the expedition was making a bigger impact than expected. Making a change Jensen wrote to the governors of each state her group was going to pass through and told them they were going to retrace the trip with canoes on the water and they were going to follow the journals of Lewis and Clark. It worked beautifully because every governor of the state greeted us, sent people to be along the line to talk to us and have dinners and meetings, said Jensen. The expedition received media spotlights in local newspapers of towns the
Source: Belva Jensen The Mount Vernon Ladies Association of 1968 after Jensens return from her expedition. From left to right, Frances Bolton, Turkey Tayac, Belva Jensen, Robert Ware Straus, Rosamond Bierne, Gladys Spellman, and Hervey Machen.

group traveled to, where Jensen was able to meet with people. These came as a real opportunity for Jensen to bring to light the issues of the environment that concerned her. Environmentalists and supporters reached out to learn more about what Jensen was doing. It was amazing to see the unexpected attention we were getting from going on the expedition, said Peter Strass, one of Jensens students who went on the trip with her. I think the trip gave her more confidence because she saw that she could make a difference. After we came back, she started getting more involved in environmental work because the trip pushed her to use her power as a professor to do more for Southern Maryland. (more)

Jensen agreed with Strass and never knew before retracing the trail that anything would come of it. I didnt think that going on this trip would affect anyone else. I thought it would be fun, and I loved to combine my passion for science with anything fun, said Jensen. After coming back from the trip, she realized making a change on the community around her wasnt as hard as she thought it was. She used her confidence and experience from the trip to help prepare instructions for a new curriculum in environmental studies that was offered at the college. After the trip, Jensen became involved in several ecological centers that advocate for a cleaner environment. She helped the college grow and spread environmental awareness through the Mount Vernon Ladies Association and the Alice Ferguson Foundations Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center. The college implemented pollution abatement technology in the fall of 1969 because of her findings from the trail and worked toward constructing a community more efficient in energy and environmental design. Jensen is now retired from teaching at the College of Southern Maryland for over 40 years but has released a book of recollections from her experience retracing the Lewis and Clark trail called Trailing Lewis and Clark which can be found on Amazon.com.

(###)