These days "Native" is IN - whether we're talking about native plants or Native Americans. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what does it mean to be native to a place? Also, the stories of gorilla researcher Diane Fossey and painter Georgia O'Keefe - two women who "went native."

Judith Lowry runs a seed company specializing in native California plants. She tells Jim Fleming what she has against alien species, and why she's devoted to native plants: they're beautiful, practical and a source of food. Lowry is the author of the forthcoming book "Gardening with a Wild Heart."

Wes Jackson is the founder of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas and the author of "Becoming Native to This Place." He tells Steve Paulson about his efforts to revolutionize agriculture by replacing annual food crops with perennials, and decribes the cultural aspects of becoming native to a place. Also, African American historian Katherine Butler Jones tells Jim Fleming that she accidentally discovered her family were landowners in New York state in the early 19th century and operated an Underground Railroad station in Keeseville, NY, and describes the effect this has had on her own sense of place. Jones wrote about her family in a recent issue of Orion magazine and is working on a book called "Deeper Roots."

Duke University cultural critic Marianna Torgovnick tells Steve Paulson that there is a spiritual hunger for ecstasy -- primal experience not contaminated by civilization. She explains how gorilla researcher Dian Fossey and painter Georgia O'Keefe are examples of this, and that men feminize landscape in a way that women do not. Torgovnick's book is "Primitive Passions: Men, Women and the Quest for Ecstasy."

Distribution dates:

• week of 05/31/98 - hour 2