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Rexford F. Daubenmire and the Ecology of Place: Applied Ecology in the Mid-Twentieth-Century American West

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New Perspectives on the History of Life Sciences and Agriculture

Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 40))

Abstract

Over his four-decade career in the Pacific Northwest, ecologist Rexford F. Daubenmire (1909–1995) developed an engaged ecology of place. Daubenmire connected regional fieldwork with ecology’s larger theoretical questions about plant communities. A prolific researcher with a national reputation, he practiced applied ecology on rangelands and in forests, orienting much of his work toward determining what vegetation could potentially occupy a habitat type to inform management decisions. Such a perspective made him useful to regional agriculturalists and resource managers but put him at odds with other ecologists who did not believe distinct and predictable plant communities existed. As a case study, Daubenmire reveals contours of ecological debates between the beginnings of American ecology and the rise of the environmental movement, and he also represents those scientists seeking connections between generalized theories, local conditions, and practical problems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Daubenmire (1952, p. 327).

  2. 2.

    Overviews of ecology’s founding and development include Bowler (1992); Golley (1993); Hagen (1992); Kingsland (2005), Tobey (1981); Worster (1994). Also, Real and Brown (1991).

  3. 3.

    Stohlgren (2007, p. 34).

  4. 4.

    The classic statement is Hays (1959). Although Hays’ focus extended only to 1920, these priorities remained important much longer. For how these ideas evolved into the New Deal Era, see Fox (1981), esp. pp. 183–217; Maher (2008).

  5. 5.

    Daubenmire (1953, p. 17).

  6. 6.

    A brief biography that highlights Daubenmire’s professional achievements is Hoffman (1996). The textbooks are Daubenmire (1947), Plants and Environment; Daubenmire (1959b), Plants and Environment; Daubenmire (1968b), Plant Communities; Daubenmire (1974), Plants and Environment; Daubenmire (1978), Plant Geography.

  7. 7.

    Billick and Price (2010, p. 4). This approach also resembles Jeremy Vetter’s discussion of field scientists “scaling up” their work from their local field sites to the regional scale (or even beyond) to reach broader claims of knowledge. See Vetter (2011) in his introduction, esp. pp. 2–3, as well as Chap. 14 in this volume.

  8. 8.

    On Humboldt’s work as a precursor to ecology, see Bowler (1992, pp. 205–208); Nicolson (1987); Worster (1994, pp. 133–137). Plant geography is discussed in various contexts in this volume in Chaps. 2 (Phillips), 3 (Güttler), 5 (Horan), and 16 (Lavelle).

  9. 9.

    Ecologists have accounted for how scientists classified communities variously across the globe in Kendeigh (1954); Whittaker (1962).

  10. 10.

    Robert Kohler contextualized American plant ecologists’ classification activities from the 1890s to the 1930s within biology’s other classification practices; see Kohler (2008).

  11. 11.

    Cowles (1899, p. 95).

  12. 12.

    For Cowles, see Cittadino (1993). Rumore (2009, pp. 84–86) describes Cowles’ educational background.

  13. 13.

    Cowles published his influential study in four successive 1899 journal issues: Cowles (1899).

  14. 14.

    Clements’ classic statement is in Clements (1916), quoted on p. 124. Daubenmire’s characterization of Clements’ theory is clear and helpful. In Plant Communities, he wrote: Clements hypothesized “that within a given area all differences among habitats due to soil and topography are eliminated with the passing of time, so that all the area is ultimately taken over by the same climax association, the nature of which reflects primarily the climate. His monoclimax hypothesis, as it later came to be known, therefore demanded that every piece of vegetation in a landscape be fitted into one or more seres, all of which converge in a common climax.” Daubenmire (1968b, p. 240; original emphasis). Seres are transitory states of vegetation prior to reaching the climax state.

  15. 15.

    Gleason (1926), quoted on p. 26; and Gleason (1939), where he is clearer and more insistent on his view’s incompatibility with community ecology. Commentary is in Nicolson and McIntosh (2002).

  16. 16.

    Kingsland (2005) also emphasizes how Gleason’s concepts undermined ecologists’ abilities to predict and thus be socially useful in Evolution of American Ecology, p. 160.

  17. 17.

    On the resurgence of Gleason’s influence in the 1950s, see Barbour (1995). Rumore has challenged the notion that there was as sharp a divergence as Barbour describes, because Barbour (and others) overemphasized the dominance of Clements. See Rumore (2009, pp. 10–11).

  18. 18.

    Tansley (1935, p. 299).

  19. 19.

    Daubenmire adopted “ecosystem” early and employed it throughout his career. His first use was in Daubenmire and Colwell (1942, p. 32). Cooper (1926, p. 397) famously compared dynamic vegetation communities to a “braided stream.” Rumore (2009) has examined this effectively in “A natural laboratory.”

  20. 20.

    Daubenmire studied with Stanley Cain as an undergraduate at Butler University. Cain worked at the University of Chicago at the same time Cowles taught there, although Cowles was not Cain’s supervisor. Later, Cain was an assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior. Thomas (1995); Barbour (1995, p. 253). Daubenmire also took a master’s degree at University of Colorado, working with Francis Ramaley. Hoffman (1996, pp. 143–144); Stout (1995, p. 85).

  21. 21.

    Barbour relates a revealing story from Daubenmire about Clements’ dogmatism. The two botanists were scouting plant communities in the Palouse when Clements misidentified a plant and announced it as a climax species. When Daubenmire corrected Clements and noted the plant was evidence of disturbance, Clements replied that “There’s a negligible difference,” suggesting how Clements might have overlooked details to fit his theories. Barbour (1995, p. 248).

  22. 22.

    Rumore (2009, pp. 206–241) shows these ideas and influences in practice in Cooper’s Glacier Bay fieldwork.

  23. 23.

    Daubenmire (1936) was a pioneer researcher in fire ecology. His text, Plants and Environment, reportedly was the first plant ecology text to devote a chapter to fire as an ecological factor; see Hoffman (1980, p. 34). Also, in 1968, he published a review essay on fire in grasslands that remained a classic for a generation; see Daubenmire (1968a).

  24. 24.

    To be sure, ecologists still named vegetation groups for pragmatic reasons, but, as Kohler wrote, “they no longer constructed systems of classification, nor inquired too deeply into biological meaning of their categories.” Kohler (2008), quoted on p. 107 (original emphasis).

  25. 25.

    Daubenmire (1938); Merriam (1898).

  26. 26.

    Nicolson (1987).

  27. 27.

    Merriam (1890). Worster linked Merriam to Humboldt in Nature’s Economy, pp. 195–197.

  28. 28.

    Daubenmire (1938), quotations on pp. 330–332. He developed his own assessment of zones in the Rocky Mountains not long after this publication; see Daubenmire (1943). Later, Daubenmire demonstrated shortcomings to other climate-based classifications in Daubenmire (1956a).

  29. 29.

    Washington State University Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections; Rexford F. Daubenmire papers (unprocessed) MS-1997–05 (hereafter RFDP); J. Grinnell to Prof. Rexford F. Daubenmire, 11 November 1938.

  30. 30.

    Worster (1979, 1994) accounts for Clements’s work surrounding the Dust Bowl in Nature’s Economy, pp. 221–253; and Dust Bowl, pp. 198–209.

  31. 31.

    Material on the region’s history is synthesized well in Meinig (1995 pp. 3–25); Duffin (2007, pp. 16–31). For grazing, see Dwire et al. (1999); McGregor (1982). For the Columbia Basin Project, see Pitzer (1994).

  32. 32.

    Daubenmire (1939, p. 33).

  33. 33.

    Fox (1981); Maher (2008).

  34. 34.

    Daubenmire (1940b, p. 8).

  35. 35.

    Daubenmire (1939, p. 33).

  36. 36.

    Daubenmire (1940a), quoted on p. 60. He had presented these four stages in preliminary form in Daubenmire (1939, pp. 35–36).

  37. 37.

    Daubenmire (1940a), quoted on p. 62. Earlier, he had recommended minimal spring grazing and relying on cured shoots in fall and winter for feedstock to ameliorate overgrazing’s effects; see Daubenmire (1939, p. 36). Daubenmire’s work related to cheatgrass invasion is contextualized in Young and Allen (1997).

  38. 38.

    Daubenmire and Colwell (1942), both quotations on p. 32.

  39. 39.

    Daubenmire (1940b, p. 8. He used “potentiality” in various forms, including “biotic potentiality” or “crop potentiality” in many publications.

  40. 40.

    Daubenmire (1940b, p. 8).

  41. 41.

    Daubenmire (1940b); Daubenmire (1942), quoted on p. 60.

  42. 42.

    Daubenmire (1940b, pp. 9–10, quotation on p. 10). He made a similar statement in Daubenmire (1942, p. 75).

  43. 43.

    Daubenmire (1942, p. 55).

  44. 44.

    Daubenmire and Colwell (1942, p. 32).

  45. 45.

    Daubenmire (1946, p. 33).

  46. 46.

    Daubenmire (1952, p. 321).

  47. 47.

    He explains his reasoning clearly in Daubenmire (1946), quotations on pp. 37, 36, 37, respectively.

  48. 48.

    Daubenmire’s approach to classification is contextualized historically for managers in Bailey et al. (1978); Franklin (1980); O’Hara et al. (1996). Both Franklin and Pfister (a coauthor in Bailey et al.) worked with Daubenmire for their doctorates. Daubenmire’s approach is an antecedent to what is sometimes called potential natural vegetation (PNV). An explanation and application is found in Henderson et al. (2011), esp. pp. 2–5.

  49. 49.

    Daubenmire (1952), “Forest vegetation of northern Idaho and adjacent Washington,” p. 324.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., pp. 301–30.

  51. 51.

    His system is described in ibid., pp. 302–303. Similar summaries are found in Daubenmire (1953), “Classification of the conifer forests,” pp. 17–19; Daubenmire (1954), “Vegetation classification.”

  52. 52.

    Daubenmire (1952), “Forest vegetation of northern Idaho and adjacent Washington,” quotation pp. 324–35. This definition differed from contemporaneous work that took a systems approach toward how and what moved through ecosystems; see Golley, History of the Ecosystem Concept, esp. pp. 35–108; Hagen, Entangled Bank, esp. pp. 78–145; Kingsland (2005), esp. pp. 185–99, 206–19; Worster, Nature’s Economy, esp. pp. 301–15.

  53. 53.

    Daubenmire described the origins of this idea in a paper given in 1987, see Rexford Daubenmire, “The roots of a concept,” a paper presented at the Symposium Land Classifications Based on Vegetation: Applications for Resource Management,” pp. 17–19 November 1987 (found in RFDP).

  54. 54.

    Daubenmire (1952), “Forest vegetation of northern Idaho and adjacent Washington,” quotation from p. 326. More on mapping habitat types is found in Daubenmire (1973), “A comparison of approaches to the mapping.” Other publications also show Daubenmire attempting to predict ecological trends for managers, see Daubenmire (1956b), “The use of vegetation to indicate grazing potentials.” Daubenmire (1976), “The use of vegetation in assessing the productivity.”

  55. 55.

    Daubenmire, “Roots of a concept,” (unpublished); Bailey et al. (1978); O’Hara et al. (1996);; Pfister and Arno (1980); Stout (1995); Hill Williams, “Shrubs, Herbs Used in Classing Forests,” unnamed and undated newspaper article contained in RFDP; Hinz (1975).

  56. 56.

    Daubenmire (1953, p. 17).

  57. 57.

    Daubenmire made this very point about competing demands in Daubenmire (1973, pp. 87–91). An overview of these trends in the region is in Sowards (2007, pp. 176–82).

  58. 58.

    RFDP; Frank E. Egler to Daubie, 2 December 1952. For Egler’s position as a Clementsian critic in favor of the individualist school, see Whittaker (1962, pp. 82 and 124).

  59. 59.

    RFDP; John H. Fagan (to Rexford Daubenmire, undated). Although it is not specified, Fagan was likely employed by Potlatch Corporation. Another Potlatch forester inquired about reprints to distribute to the company’s foresters; see RFDP; Royce G. Cox to Dr. R. F. Daubenmire, 6 February 1953. RFDP; M. E. Solomon to Dr. R. Daubenmire (undated). Solomon worked in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Pest Infestation Laboratory, Slough, England. RFDP; Lucy B. Moore to Dr. R. F. Daubenmire, 7 April 1953. Moore worked in the Botany Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Wellington, New Zealand.

  60. 60.

    RFDP; Paul D. Dalke to Dr. R. F. Daubenmire, 19 December 1952.

  61. 61.

    Statistics derived from information on US Forest Service website, (http://www.fs.fed.us/) accessed 30 July 2013.

  62. 62.

    RFDP; Fred W. Johnson to Dr. R. F. Daubenmire, 21 November 1952. The principal silviculturist from the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station in Pennsylvania concurred with the need to tie plant sociology with forest management, see RFDP; M. Westveld to Dr. R. Daubenmire, 8 December 1952. Perhaps too much can be made of the supportive statements by foresters, since historian Paul W. Hirt has shown that timber management in the region at this time initiated a disastrous set of unsustainable practices, see Hirt (1999).

  63. 63.

    Kohler (2002) explored various efforts in biology to bring statistical and other methods into fieldwork around the turn of the twentieth century in Landscapes and Labscapes. Other histories of ecology note the quantitative shift. Kingsland (2005) focuses on how ecologists adopted systems perspectives to study ecosystems in Evolution of American Ecology, pp. 206–231. McIntosh explores a range of quantitative topics in The Background of Ecology, pp. 107–145. Also, Bowler, Earth Encompassed, pp. 535–46.

  64. 64.

    The classic methodological paper is Bray and Curtis (1957).

  65. 65.

    Explanations and context for Curtis’ work can be found in McIntosh (1985), esp. pp. 137–45; Nicolson (2001).

  66. 66.

    Barbour (1995). The degree to which the shift truly represented a paradigm change is debatable, depending on one’s comparative framework. Nonetheless, a revival of Gleason’s influence was indisputable.

  67. 67.

    For instance, Daubenmire (1952, p. 302); Daubenmire (1968b, p. x.)

  68. 68.

    Daubenmire (1966, quoted on p. 291).

  69. 69.

    Daubenmire (1960, p. 24). This paper was based on remarks at a Symposium on Forest Types and Forest Ecosystems during the IX International Botanical Congress in Montreal, 24 August 1959. It includes some of his most direct criticisms of the continuum school.

  70. 70.

    Daubenmire (1966), esp. pp. 291–95. In 1959, Daubenmire published his own methodology, which explained his field approach in detail. Daubenmire (1959a). This article was widely cited (according to Google Scholar, nearly 2000 citations) and earned status as a “citation classic” for ecology; in fact, it was the 13th most cited article in ecology between 1947 and 1977. See McIntosh (1989). With modifications, his method continues to be used; see Bonham et al. (2004).

  71. 71.

    Daubenmire (1966), esp. pp. 292–96, quotations from pp. 295, 296, 298. His focus on space and time, as well as the emphasis on landscapes’ mosaics, are all legacies of Cooper’s teaching. Nicolson showed that Humboldt first distinguished between floral vegetation in “Humboldt, Humboldtian Science.”

  72. 72.

    All in RFDP; Francis C. Evans to Dr. R. F. Daubenmire, 26 January 1966 (struck a blow); John [no last name] to Dauby, 15 February 1966 (rallying point); Dr. Robert Linn to Dr. Rexford Daubenmire, 21 January 1966 (good show).

  73. 73.

    Helen Buell, quoted in Barbour (1995, p. 242).

  74. 74.

    All in RFDP; Ronald O. Kapp to Dr. R. Daubenmire, 25 January 1966 (“nonsense”); Philip V. Wells to Dr. R. F. Daubenmire, 15 February 1966 (“abstract nonsense”); Lawrence C. Bliss to Dr. Rexford Daubenmire, 28 February 1966 (little ecological value); James W. Drescher to Dr. Rexford Daubenmire, 19 April 1966 (“entirely indoctrinated”).

  75. 75.

    RFDP; Frank (Egler) to Daubie, 26 February 1966.

  76. 76.

    RFDP; Harold Lutz to Dr. Daubenmire, 26 January 1966 (original emphasis). Lutz continued, “It may be smugness, but sometimes I wonder about the field experience of those who have trouble with these concepts.”

  77. 77.

    Others appreciated Daubenmire’s account because it affirmed their own research findings and thus lent support against the wave of continuum studies. For instance, all in RFDP; Henry S. Conrad to Dr. Daubenmire, 22 January 1966; Donald Caplenor to Dr. R. F. Daubenmire, 23 February 1966. The Daubenmire Papers include dozens of supportive letters. Science published two letters from Curtis students, explaining their disagreements with Daubenmire’s methods and interpretation of continuum perspectives; Vogl et al. (1966).

  78. 78.

    Richard S. Driscoll to Dr. R. Daubenmire, 14 November 1966.

  79. 79.

    Quoted in Barbour (1995, p. 241). A list of Daubenmire’s graduate students is available in RFDP.

  80. 80.

    A regional overview is found in Sowards (2007), esp. pp. 167–209.

  81. 81.

    There are numerous studies that trace the contours of the environmental movement; for a representative introduction, see Rothman (1998).

  82. 82.

    Daubenmire and Daubenmire (1968); Daubenmire (1970). The forest vegetation study included Daubenmire’s wife, who had earned an MSc degree, as a coauthor. She accompanied him on much of his fieldwork, and he faithfully acknowledged her assistance in numerous publications. This was their only coauthored piece. Unfortunately, the dynamics of their scientific partnership remain elusive in the extant record. Letters from his students contained in his papers frequently mention Jean, suggesting that she was an active and visible partner.

  83. 83.

    Daubenmire and Daubenmire (1968, pp. 1–2). Much as anthropologists practice salvage anthropology where artifacts or communities are imminently threatened, what Daubenmire is describing here can be likened to salvage ecology: gathering as much ecological data as possible before the natural community was destroyed.

  84. 84.

    Maximum sustained yield was a common managerial goal, although environmental historians have criticized its actual practice; see, for example, Hirt (1994); Langston (1995, pp. 157–200); McEvoy (1986, p. 6).

  85. 85.

    Daubenmire (1970, p. 1). For further criticism of narrow management, see Daubenmire (1984).

  86. 86.

    Daubenmire (1970, pp. 79–80), quotation on pp. 80. Knobloch points out that restoring overgrazed ranges was always about increasing economic productivity, not any ecologically based goal; see Knobloch (1996, pp. 99). Knobloch explores the chemical focus of weed eradication on pp. 136–142; see also Duffin (2007, pp. 102–26).

  87. 87.

    Burgess and Ellstrand (1983); Hoffman (1980, pp. 34–35); Hoffman reviews his awards in Hoffman (1996). See also Bormann (1996, p. 3); Anonymous (n.d.). On his retirement, many students wrote letters of appreciation that revealed the deep admiration they felt for their mentor. This correspondence is bound and contained in the RFDP, which also contains the actual awards.

  88. 88.

    Daubenmire (1968b, p. 25).

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Acknowledgments

The participants at the workshop provided a helpful, supportive, and engaging environment. Sharon Kingsland challenged me and forced me to clarify concepts and prose in a way that vastly improved this essay. I am grateful to Laura Kross for her research assistance and many conversations about Daubenmire and ecological methods. Ian Chambers proved to be an excellent reader of multiple drafts. Andrew Duffin provided both invaluable research assistance and intellectual companionship; in an earlier iteration of this essay, he served as my coauthor, an experience I relished. Finally, to Kelley Sowards who listened to my findings and ideas and read countless drafts, I am grateful as we develop our own ecology of place here.

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  1. Department of History, University of Idaho, 875 Perimeter Drive, MS3175, 83844-3175, Moscow, ID, USA

    Adam M. Sowards

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  1. Adam M. Sowards
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Correspondence to Adam M. Sowards .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

    Denise Phillips

  2. History of Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Sharon Kingsland

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Sowards, A. (2015). Rexford F. Daubenmire and the Ecology of Place: Applied Ecology in the Mid-Twentieth-Century American West. In: Phillips, D., Kingsland, S. (eds) New Perspectives on the History of Life Sciences and Agriculture. Archimedes, vol 40. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12185-7_15

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