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Draft:Thomas Elpel

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  • Comment: No significant coverage (in-depth, analytical - more than passing mentions) about Elpel (rather than works by him) in published reliable independent secondary sources with reputations for accuracy and fact-checking. Paul W (talk) 11:15, 2 September 2026 (UTC)


Thomas J. Elpel
Born1967 (age 58–59)
Los Altos, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Author
  • educator
  • conservationist
  • builder
Known forBotany in a Day, primitive living skills, green building
Websitewww.elpel.info

Thomas J. Elpel (born 1967) is an American author, educator, ecologist, and conservationist.[1] He is best known for his work in botany, primitive living skills, and sustainable green construction.[2] His book Botany in a Day popularized the "patterns method" of plant identification by teaching readers to recognize plant families based on shared morphological traits.[3]

Early life

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Elpel was born in Los Altos, California. His family spent summers in southwestern Montana, where he was mentored in wild plants and survival skills by his grandmother.[4] At the age of 12, Elpel's family moved to Montana.[5]

At age 16, Elpel completed a 250-mile, 26-day walkabout through southern Utah with Boulder Outdoor Survival School. The following year, he attended Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School in New Jersey alongside his grandmother.[6][7] In 1988, two years out of high school, he and a girlfriend did a two-month 500-mile walk across Montana.[8][9] Elpel subsequently did wilderness therapy work with troubled teens while saving up money to buy land and build a house.[10]

Career

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Elpel was inspired by the work of Amory Lovins and Rocky Mountain Institute, especially the concept of negawatts, that conserving resources is more cost-effective than developing them. Instead of getting a job to pay a mortgage, power bill, and other monthly expenses, Elpel sought to pursue self-sufficiency to avoid expenses and therefore avoid the need for regular employment. In 1989, three years out of high school, Elpel moved into a tent and built a passive solar stone and log house in Pony, Montana. He moved into the house in 1991 and later installed solar panels to zero out the power bill.[11] Inspired by this grandmother, Elpel cooks on a wood cookstove.[12] By having few bills, Elpel avoided the need for a conventional job.[4]

Elpel founded Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School LLC (HOPS) in 1991 to teach classes in wilderness survival and sustainable living.[13][14]

Elpel has authored or produced numerous books, videos, and games with a focus on nature education. He is best known for his book Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. He founded HOPS Press LLC, an independent publishing house created to distribute his books, field guides, and educational materials. Elpel credits his lack of expenses for giving him freedom to develop a successful writing career.[11] He did not attend college.[15]

In 2004, Elpel established Green University LLC.[16] The school features an immersion program to mentor adult students in primitive living skills, green building techniques, permaculture, and sustainable living practices.[17] Students live in yurts, earth shelters, and wickiups at River Camp near Cardwell, Montana. They eat roadkill deer and other wild game.[18][19]

Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School LLC was rebranded as Outdoor Wilderness Living School LLC (OWLS) in 2011 with an emphasis on "Classroom in the Woods" programs for public schools.[20] [6] The mission of OWLS is to reintroduce youths to the natural world through primitive wilderness survival skills, such as bow & drill fire-making, cooking in a stone oven, shelter construction, stalking wildlife, bird language[21][22], and hide tanning.[23] The school also offers summer camps. [24]

Major works

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  • Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification (1st ed. 1996; 6th ed. 2013) ISBN 978-1892784353[2]
  • Roadmap to Reality: Consciousness, Worldviews, and the Blossoming of Human Spirit (2008) ISBN 978-1-892784-29-2
  • Participating in Nature: Wilderness Survival and Primitive Living Skills (6th ed. 2009) ISBN 978-1892784308
  • Living Homes: Stone Masonry, Log, and Strawbale Construction (6th ed. 2010) ISBN 978-1892784322
  • Green Prosperity: Quit Your Job, Live Your Dreams (2018) ISBN 978-1892784414
  • Foraging the Mountain West: Edible & Medicinal Plants, Mushrooms, and Weeds (2018) ISBN 978-1892784360[25]
  • Five Months on the Missouri River: Paddling a Dugout Canoe as a Corps of Rediscovery (2020) ISBN 978-1-892784-50-6
  • Shanleya's Quest: A Botany Adventure for Kids Ages 9 to 99 (2005) ISBN 978-1892784162
  • Shanleya's Quest 2: Botany Adventure at the Fallen Tree (2020) ISBN 978-1892784513
  • Wildlife Web: A Dynamic Ecology Strategy Game (2019)[26][27]

Corps of Rediscovery

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In 2018, Elpel carved a dugout canoe from a Douglas fir log at Green University LLC under the tutelage of Churchill Clark, direct descendant of Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.[28][29] Elpel and Clark tested the canoe on an 80-mile paddle trip down the Marias River.[30] The following year, Elpel led a five-man, five-month "Missouri River Corps of Rediscovery" expedition 2,300 miles down the Missouri River from Three Forks, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri.[31] Elpel wrote a weekly column from the river. In 2020, Elpel published a book about the adventure, Five Months on the Missouri River: Paddling a Dugout Canoe.[32][33] Elpel won three awards for the book, including the Writer's Digest First Place Award for Non-Fiction.[18]

Conservation work

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Elpel founded the Jefferson River Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation[34] with the goal of protecting the river from development and preserving access to the land.[9][35] The chapter's primary focus creating a water trail known as the "Jefferson River Canoe Trail" along the 80-mile Jefferson River segment of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.[11][36] The trail includes multiple campsites on parcels of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land as well as state land managed by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (MT DNRC). In 2014, chapter members purchased a 4.4-acre property for a public campsite on the river near Three Forks in 2014 and named it Shoshone Landing.[34] In 2017, the group purchased a 30-acre property near Waterloo, Montana. The new campsite was named Lost Tomahawk by the Whitehall seventh grade class, based on local events in the Lewis and Clark journals.[37][38] A third campsite was purchased in 2025 and named Otter Landing.[39]

In 2025, Elpel purchased an abandoned building site carved into the hill overlooking the town of Pony, Montana with the intent to reclaim the property and convert it into a community park. The parcel creates legal public access to 9 acres of adjacent land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.[7][40]

References

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  1. ↑ Errett, Vaia (Spring 2023). "The River Below: Thomas Elpel on the future of water in the West". Outside Bozeman: 90–94.
  2. 1 2 Prinzing, Kristin (Summer 2014). "Botany in a Day". Zone 4. 6 (2): 15.
  3. ↑ Elpel, Thomas J. (2013). Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, LLC. ISBN 978-1892784353.
  4. 1 2 Pierce, Ben (June 25, 2009). "Living off the land". Bozeman Daily Chronicle. pp. D1–D2.
  5. ↑ Wackerle, Curtis (September 12, 2004). "Surviving the Wild: City folks learn primitive skills". The Montana Standard.
  6. 1 2 Stiff, Hannah (September 12, 2014). "Classrooms in the Wild". Belgrade News. pp. A3, A13.
  7. 1 2 Liang, Teh Chin (March 5, 2026). "Thomas J. Elpel, Author, Builder, Wilderness Educator and Conservationist". Dave's Travel Corner.
  8. ↑ Lundquist, Laura (August 23, 2009). "'The Art of Nothing'". The Montana Standard. pp. C1, C5.
  9. 1 2 Kearse, Hannah (Summer 2020). "A paddle in time: Jefferson River Canoe Trail". The Loop: 62–65.
  10. ↑ Zimmerman, Janet. "AERO Member Spotlight: Thomas Elpel". AERO Sun Times.
  11. 1 2 3 Kesselheim, Alan (Summer 2026). "Small Footprint, Big Presence". Montana Quarterly. 22 (2): 20–27.
  12. ↑ Teasdale, Aaron (Spring 2013). "Survive & Advance: Thomas Elpel thrives on nothing but nature". Montana Headwall Magazine.
  13. ↑ "Thomas J. Elpel: Author, Builder, Survival Instructor, and Conservationist". Wilderness Way. 15 (2).
  14. ↑ Nyerges, Christopher (December 22, 2025). "Interview with Author and Teacher Tom Elpel". Thomas J. Elpel.
  15. ↑ Dunlap, Susan (May 12, 2019). "Journy of discovery". The Montana Standard. pp. C1–C2.
  16. ↑ Adams, Duncan (March 7, 2024). "An oasis of the ancestral". The Montana Standard. pp. B7–B8.
  17. ↑ Pierce, Ben (2009-06-25). "Living off the Land". Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
  18. 1 2 Palmer, Jolene (April 22, 2021). "Back to Basics: A Photo Essay". The Madisonian. pp. B1.
  19. ↑ Brulliard, Karin (January 5, 2019). "Roadkill: In a growing number of states, it's what's for dinner". Washington Post. Retrieved September 6, 2026.
  20. ↑ Kern, Nick (June 2, 2011). "Local man helps students connect to the outdoors". The Madisonian.
  21. ↑ Christensen, Kelley (May 25, 2014). "Willow Creek camp teaches students outdoor skills". The Montana Standard. pp. C1, C5.
  22. ↑ Palmer, Jolene (June 24, 2021). "Above and Beyond: Harrison Educator Recognized for Education Dedication". The Madisonian. pp. B1.
  23. ↑ Pullman, Elizabeth (November 17, 2021). "Harrison 7th-8th Graders Learn Tanning at River Camp". Whitehall Ledger. p. 5.
  24. ↑ Adams, Duncan. "Ancient Skills". Bozeman Daily Chronicle. pp. B1.
  25. ↑ Pierce, Ben (December 18, 2014). "Give the gift of Montana". Bozeman Daily Chronicle. pp. C1.
  26. ↑ "Local author creates wildlife ecology game". Whitehall Ledger. February 13, 2019. p. 21.
  27. ↑ Coyler, Reagan (February 21, 2019). "Wild Game". The Madisonian.
  28. ↑ "Dugout Canoe Carving on the Jefferson River". Whitehall Ledger. April 4, 2018. p. 9.
  29. ↑ Waugh, Emily Grace (2018). "History in Full Swing on the Jefferson River". The Lewis and Clark Journal. p. 3.
  30. ↑ "Belladonna Beaver the Dugout Canoe". Whitehall Ledger. July 25, 2018. p. 11.
  31. ↑ Castle, Jessianne (2020). "Following in the Wake of Lewis & Clark". Big Sky Journal: 128–135.
  32. ↑ Grisak, Amy (Winter 2021). "Journey of Rediscovery". The New Pioneer (259): 108–111.
  33. ↑ Kuglin, Tom (July 2, 2020). "Author chronicles 5 months on the Missouri River in a dugout canoe". The Montana Standard. pp. C1–C2.
  34. 1 2 Lundquist, Laura (September 9, 2014). "Following the trail: Group buys campsite property to add to the Jefferson River Canoe Trail". Bozeman Daily Chronicle. pp. A1, A8.
  35. ↑ Hurlbut, Brian (2015). "River Right". Big Sky Journal. Fly Fishing 2015: 102–109.
  36. ↑ "Jefferson River Canoe Trail". National Park Service. September 9, 2026.
  37. ↑ Dunlap, Susan (May 28, 2018). "Long-lost tomahawk makes history at the river". The Montana Standard. pp. A1.
  38. ↑ Smith, Jack (May 16, 2018). "Students explore Lost Tomahawk". Whitehall Ledger. p. 9.
  39. ↑ Elpel, Thomas (May 8, 2025). "New campsite on the Jefferson River Canoe Trail". The Madisonian. pp. B1.
  40. ↑ "Pony Overlook Proposal". Pony Homecoming Club: 1. Fall 2025.
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