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Lewis and Clark were blown away by the thousands upon thousands of bison they saw storming across the open plain. It seems every time they turned around they spied a grizzly bear on a hillside. And the salmon were so thick in the rivers, they could have walked across the backs of them to get to the other side.

But... no more. Populations of bison, grizzly and salmon have greatly diminished, and some plant and animal species have gone extinct, or are on the brink of it.

Find out what Lewis and Clark observed about the following plants and animals -- and what's left today.

For more information, read the full Sierra Club special report:
What's Lost, What's Left: A Status Report on the Plants & Animals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
(13MB pdf file)

North American Prairie Bison Black-tailed prairie dog Black-footed ferret Interior least tern Whooping crane Swift fox Burrowing owl Pronghorn Pallid sturgeon Eastern cottonwood Badger Piping plover Greater prairie chicken Big bluestem Topeka shiner

Northern Rockies Grizzly bear Whitebark pine Westslope cutthroat trout Gray wolf Oregon bitterroot Clark's nutcracker Bull trout Elk Elegant mariposa lily Bighorn sheep Cougar Mountain goat Greater sage grouse Trumpeter swan

Pacific Northwest Pacific Salmon and steelhead Western red cedar Northern spotted owl Fisher Pygmy rabbit Lewis's woodpecker Woodland caribou Oregon spotted frog Pacific yew Canada lynx Sea otter Wolverine Big sagebrush

For more information about the Sierra Club's Lewis and Clark campaign or to find out how you can help, contact lewisandclark@sierraclub.org.

Photo: Swift fox, courtesy USGS.