page_title: Engineer Cantonment
section_title: Since 1820
hierarchical_section_title: Engineer Cantonment / Biology / Since 1820
caption_attribution_description: Tamias striatus (en:Eastern chipmunk) (fr:Tamia rayé)
context_page_description: Engineer Cantonment is an archaeological site in Washington County, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. Located in the floodplain of the Missouri River near present-day Omaha, Nebraska, it was the temporary winter camp of the scientific party of the Yellowstone Expedition. From October 1819 to June 1820, the party studied the geology and biology of the vicinity, and met with the local indigenous peoples. Their eight-month study of the biota has been described as "the first biodiversity inventory undertaken in the United States".
  The site was not used again after the departure of the expedition, and its location was forgotten. In 2003, it was rediscovered, and investigated during the 2003–05 archaeological seasons. In 2015, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
context_section_description: The habitat and the biota of the area have changed significantly since 1820.  At the time of the Long expedition, the Missouri was a meandering stream subject to spring flooding, moving through a wide floodplain with oxbow lakes and palustrine wetlands.  Frequent prairie fires prevented the growth of extensive woodlands: the river valley was characterized by scattered groves, the bluffs that bounded it were not densely wooded, and the prairie west of the bluffs was entirely treeless.  Since then, the river has been straightened and confined to a single channel.  Dams built upstream control flooding.  The wetlands of the floodplain have been drained and converted to farmland.  Fire suppression has allowed the growth of riparian forests dominated by cottonwood, and the bluffs are now heavily wooded.
  Several species recorded at Engineer Cantonment are no longer present in the area.  Two birds, the passenger pigeon and the Carolina parakeet, are entirely extinct.  The local subspecies of gray wolf, Canis lupus nubilus, is likewise extinct. Several more of the larger carnivores, including black bear, eastern spotted skunk, and river otter, are no longer found in the vicinity; the mountain lion vanished from the area for many years, but in the early 21st century was once again found in eastern Nebraska.  Hunting and destruction of habitat have led to the disappearance of three major herbivores: American bison, pronghorn, and elk.
  Two bat species, the eastern pipistrelle and the evening bat, have established themselves in the vicinity.  The preferred habitat of both species is forest and forest edge, and in Nebraska their range has expanded from the extreme southeast corner of the state to cover the entire eastern third.  This phenomenon has been observed with other birds, mammals, and insects of the eastern woodlands: their ranges have expanded with the spread of riparian forest upstream along prairie rivers.
  Two forest-dwelling rodent species documented at Engineer Cantonment, the eastern chipmunk and the eastern gray squirrel, have not expanded their range in the area, but have vanished since 1820.  It has been suggested that although the increase in forest cover would seem to provide them with more habitat, the change in forest composition has been unfavorable to them: they prefer mature oak-hickory woods to the cottonwood forest that has grown up along the Missouri.
caption: Eastern chipmunk
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