Book Report: David Douglas, A Naturalist at Work

The cover of this work shows a Garry oak branch with two acorns. The author noted that Douglas wasn’t enamored of naming the plants he discovered, but the exception was possibly his favorite discovery, the Garry oak, named after friend Nicholas Garry, a Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Douglas himself is known to us by the use of his name as applied to the Douglas fir and the Douglas squirrel. The book recreates his discovery and naming of many species previously unknown to Europeans. He was humble enough to obtain native names and uses for these plants, as he was tasked to find uses for any new plants.

Nisbit tasked himself with trying to walk, as far as possible, in Douglas’ shoes, and begins by relating his own trip across the Columbia bar in a modern boat. Even with modern equipment, the trip was unsettling. Nisbit then spent time tracing trips to Gray’s Harbor and Willapa bay where Douglas had befriended a Chinook tribal leader who helped him trace new plants; and then later, harder to find animal species that had to be traded for, like mountain goats and sheep.

Douglas’ trips to other locations like Spokane House, Colville, Kettle Falls, Fort Okanogan and others were often repeated as necessity required the need to find previously discovered plants in their reproductive states. Seeds were then sent to England where they were planted and multiplied. Some, like salal and salmonberry, became weeds in England. Douglas himself noted the emergence and spread of non-native plants in the Pacific Northwest and believed they originated from seed within soil around potatoes and other plants imported from England.

Not only did Douglas witness the burning of fields and oak savannah, he interviewed natives and wanted to know why this was done. Some said it improved the hunting; others said it increased the patches of camas. No doubt it did both.

His work was difficult, and occasionally he lost entire collections to overturned canoes in river rapids. Some collections spoiled on the way to England. His short life was spent searching for new and useful plants and animals. Along the way he depicted life, and death, in the Pacific Northwest, including disease outbreaks that killed all too many people he considered friends.

His work was taking a turn towards modern methods of survey work when Douglas was killed on the Big Island of Hawaii in a pit trap meant for wild cattle. This book celebrates his contributions to us.