Left To Die

Location: Quillute Indian Reservation, Washington.

 

Visitors from across the globe come to Washington's Olympic peninsula to see some of the finest examples of temperate rainforest in the World within the boundaries of Olympic National Park. The same type of lush rainforest that used to encompass over 50,000 square miles of America's Pacific Northwest. What will greet visitors to this area FIRST, will not be pristinely beautiful forests, but this - complete devastation.

 

Some 99% of all forests in the Northwest that are not given wilderness or National Park protection have been stripped clean. Clear-cut beyond any hope of being a healthy ecosystem for several hundred of years. Logging operations span an area many, many times greater than the National Park and wilderness designations of "productive" lowland forests in the NW are exceedingly rare elsewhere. They are totally non-existent, in this, the Indian Reservation. These are poor people and remain so long after the Timber corporations came through and stole every ounce of timber on their land for the promise of jobs - jobs that left quickly after the old growth was gone and the old ways of manual labor were replaced by gigantic, horrifying metal beasts. On to the next pillaging....tropical rainforests anyone? We'll just blame it on the Spotted Owl...yeah, that sounds good....

 

What you can see in the distance of this photograph is the boundary of Olympic National Park. The exact spot where the clear cuts end. Turn around and you could walk for 100 miles and never set foot off of another clear-cut zone. The extent of this complete forest annihilation is hard to overstate.

 

These are NOT forests anymore. This is simply tree farming and it has slightly more benifit to nature than a city park. "Timber is a renewable resource" reads the Weyerhaeuser company line. Sure, but what about our forests? Real forests. Forests that offer the type of diversity and clean water that support all species. Those take a few hundred years to grow back after a clear cut. Tree farms are NOT forests. Anyone who has visited the Olympics and the National Park within can tell you that. There is no substitute for the real thing. Once it's gone, it's gone.....until long after we're gone at least.

While this is hard to drink and outrageous to notice, I am also very much encouraged to see this coming from you. I share as much passion as most of us have towards the beautiful natural habitats. Habitats where trees, animals, birds and even certain tribal people would live in harmony provided greedy outside corporations don't attack. There is so much to educate and bring awareness between us about the consumerism or materialism. We can't just always blame the corporates I also believe. The so called matra of "Greed is good" is not always right and I believe in starting from our own "I". Natural resources are limited, and especially much limited considering the human aggression already on the 99% of the planet.

 

Photographer of your caliber and tremendous fan base, is very important for this cause. While I am saddened to see this picture, I am outraged much more. It is very easy to ignore..but this is an injustice, much due to the imbalance of power.

 

One of my favorite quote is by Mahatma Gandhi "Make injustice visible"

 

Thanx very much for standing up for the cause and voicing up your opinion with such an impacting picture.

 

With much respect,

+Lalit

Lone Alder trees stand amidst the ruins of a mature forest in

Washington's Quillute Indian Reservation.

i see an old graveyard here. i guess i'm not the only one.

Certainly, its a sad image and a very big problem extended to lots of parts in the world. Perhaps we can do many things if want, but the future is going to put all the thigs where they must be.Regards. Eugenio.

Olympic National Park is my favorite place on earth. Every time I drive into the park and see those timber company signs attempting to justify the wholesale destruction of these historic, timeless, and magical forests I end up seeing red and gritting my teeth. I try to send out least one email or letter a month to my representatives or other government officials to encourage them to be proactive in preserving our wild places. Kudos to you, Marc, for doing your part.

Marc, your picture touches the right set of emotions with me too. I just saw a video of the fur trade of China and cried. I know through this picture you are not talking about cruelty towards animals but looking at this picture, I am sitting here and going "how many animals, plants, trees, rare birds lost home?" , and the video that I saw, shows caged animals, beautiful animals waiting to be slaughtered... seeing your picture and reading your notes while remembering the video is just heartbreaking.

 

Thank you for sharing such a great image... even out of devastated land you bring out the beauty.... as it's been said before you are inspiring.

 

I am posting the link to the video.... hopefully you don't find it is offensive...once you watch it, may be you will see why I posted it. Your title of this picture "Left to Die" hit me hard. You will see many faces in this video who are just left to die...just skinned alive because of greediness and materialism.

 

http://www.furisdead.com/feat/ChineseFurFarms/

 

Option to watch the video is right there at the center of the page.

 

regards, Rajeev

Magnificent photo and title. this "Left To Die" is the title of a song from the legendary Death Metal band called Death.

Well it seems to create quite a lot of conversation about the topic - so it must be good. However, it needed a far too long caption, explanation. As a photo, I'd like to see a little more foregound to not only give more depth but also to emphasize the destruction in detail.

A very diffrent image for you Marc. If only this devastation was limited to the American Pacific Northwest. Here in Australia we have the old growth forests of Tasmania being clearcut at a frightning rate, and the ridiculus situation where the regulators of the logging are the logging companies themselves. The timber workers cry out that their jobs are on line if the goverment closes down their industry, but to my mind their jobs are only a short term anyway, this level of destruction can't go on forever! There is hope, google Franklin River Dam. And to Juha Kivekas, sometimes it's more about the content than the image itself! Thanks Marc.

Firstly, this could easily be used by environmental groups for an ad campaign because it gets the point across perfectly. Clear cut logging is completely destroying ecosystems that, as you pointed out, will take hundreds of years to return. I've seen this kind of damage on the west coast of Vancouver Island, specifically just outside of Bamfield. Its given me a great idea for a shot though, so thanks.

sad

The Olympic Peninsula has been absolutely hammered by logging. It's only within the park boundaries that trees are left untouched. Yes, this will be replanted and a monoculture forest will grow to be cut in another 50-60 years. But the old-growth forest that used to be here is gone forever, as are the animals that depended on that old growth. It's quite striking the difference that a park boundary makes; in 50 feet you can walk from this "blast zone" into a forest with 500-year-old trees laden with moss and lichens.

Yeah, a grave yard. Not your best capture at all. This is another class that you might think about making w/in Photonet. I made mine with ?cars?. It was simple. Just suggest a new category. ?Conservation? or how every you what to term it. PN folks will consider & make it so.

Karen, the very point of this image is intensified by its comparison to the realative beauty of my other photographs. I wouldn't consider another category for it for that reason. This is nature destroyed, and it's important to remember what it could have been. It isn't supposed to be pretty, but I think it's just as evocative, if not more so, than much of my work.

OK, here comes another view...

 

Marc is a very talented photo-artist, on that we can all agree and enjoy his beautiful images. And honestly, is there anyone in FAVOR of eco-terrorism? Of course not. Surely I cannot be the only one that sees the irony in all this evil "corporate" bashing. Are you all not enjoying these beautiful nature scenes on expensive high tech computer equipment? Most of us have huge investments in photographic gear, cars/SUVs to get us to locations....maybe a jet trip to Patagonia or other photo paradises? I could ramble on ad nauseam about the corporate connection we are ALL tied to. I for one, do not see the point in all the doomsday elitism when it comes to our natural resources. The truth is somewhere between the extremes if you will just get the facts right.

 

We (the U.S.) are not perfect to be sure, but anti-corporate fanaticism is really just the other side of the corporate greed coin. Responsibility belongs to us all individually, and as such we need to take a long look at just who we are and what "facts" we can buy into. For those of you still reading this, I will leave you with this known but rarely publicized fact, (and I am not in the timber industry), today in the U.S., we have more net millions of square miles of forests, than when the evil pre corporate yuppie pilgrims (or for that matter, Asians) first set up camp in North America. How can this be you ask? And I will tell you it is because of our modern forest management and fire control/prevention technical evolution. I'm sickened at the sight of forest devastation regardless of the causes, I just choose to be rational about it.

 

And Marc, I love you man, keep up the excellent work.

 

Peace and love,

-Jim

>>"Are you all not enjoying these beautiful nature scenes on expensive high tech computer equipment?"

 

You can't suggest a more environmentally friendly way, can you? At least we're not using film processing chemicals anymore.

 

>>"Most of us have huge investments in photographic gear, cars/SUVs to get us to locations....maybe a jet trip to Patagonia or other photo paradises?"

 

I use only the most responsible methods to travel and limit my miles from home considerably compared to most photographers. I do not now and never have owned a truck or SUV.

 

>>"We (the U.S.) are not perfect to be sure, but anti-corporate fanaticism is really just the other side of the corporate greed coin."

 

Can you explain that statement?

 

>>"Responsibility belongs to us all individually"

 

I agree. It all starts with the informed consumer.

 

>>"today in the U.S., we have more net millions of square miles of forests, than when the evil pre corporate yuppie pilgrims (or for that matter, Asians) first set up camp in North America. How can this be you ask? And I will tell you it is because of our modern forest management and fire control/prevention technical evolution."

 

What a joke! This is exactly my point above - what the timber industy lobbyists that come up with facts like this are talking about are NOT healthy forests. Almost none of our "forests" are healthy thanks to our irresponsible corporate practices and lack of proper regulation. There is a tremendous difference between a healthy forest ecosystem and tree farming. Furthermore, even timber companies admit that our fire control/prevention practices have been greatly misplaced and resulted in deteriorating forest health and the threat for bigger, more destructive fires than ever before.

Jim, we have about 5% of the old growth forests left that were here in with the Pilgrims landed. This remaining vestige of old growth is still being cut. I once watched a train pass by pulling a bunch of flatcars, and on each flatcar was a single section of an old-growth tree. I was watching a funeral procession. An acre of replanted second growth (or third or fourth growth) is simply not the same as an acre of old growth. I don't object to logging and forest management (although some of our management practices are creating huge, unintended negative consequences), but I do object to the cutting of the last 5% of 500-year-old forests.

Points well taken Marc and Stephen. I do not want to be disagreeable here at all, it's just that extremism is not helpful in finding solutions to the problems we face in our modern society. It's influencing short-sighted politicians and convincing them to do the right thing, I do this regularly with my congressman, and I encourage all that are of like opinion to do the same. They will listen, particularly if campaign contributions are involved. Business will always behave as opportunists to serve a market (us), that's where individual responsibility comes into play. I apologize to all that might interpret my observations as anti-environmental, I'm not of that opinion at all, far from it to be sure. And for clarification, I was not defending any harvesting of old-growth stands. They are as precious as water resources IMHO.

 

On a lighter note. Marc, I would love to see what you would do with Denali...it's my favorite wilderness location on earth.

Marc,

 

This painful image is what it takes to make us understand how easy it is to loose treasures. There has got to be a better way. If clear cutting were made illegal and they had to leave every forth tree or so, the recovery process might be decades instead of centuries. It would also preserve habitat for fauna that need the trees to live. The History Channel is running a show called Ax Men that shows the amazing degree of automation applied to devastating these forests. It is now so efficient that relatively few jobs created for small crews. Thank you for the resolve to show this.

 

Vince Stanford

There is no recovery process when a 500-year-old tree is cut. The photo posted by Marc is still habitat, but it is habitat to a very different suite of species than an old-growth forest will support. This area will be replanted and then cut when the trees are around 60-years-old, and that semi-mature forest will still not support the diversity of animal species found in an old-growth forest. No landowner is willing to cut an old-growth forest, replant, and then wait 500 years for the next cut; it just doesn't happen.

Stephen,

 

You are right, of course. No old growth can really be replaced. In terms of water runoff and preservation of species, though, outlawing clear cutting would be better than not outlawing it. It would also create more jobs because of the additional care that would be required. Just a thought.

 

Vince

Thanks Marc for this image. It is like a ripple, it starts small and grows outward. A single photographer and a single photograph opens up a lengthy thread of opinions and impressions, of even, perhaps, suggestions or solutions. Marc does not, nor does anyone, possess the single solution because there is no single solution. We have created this problem as a culture and we must address, and then, find the solutions to the problem as a culture. While it might be justified to identify the big corporation as a culprit, I feel we are all responsible and accountable for this circumstance. This big mindless money making machine responds to our wishes, requests and MONEY! We want products made from wood and we want it cheap. And after we use or consume these products, we toss them into a heap as waste. I live in a neighborhood where Blue cans are provided for an annual fee of $48, just toss in the recyclables without even the need to sort, and it is picked up to be re-used. Yet, in this neighborhood, my blue recycle container can easily be counted among the few other blue cans. Meanwhile, everyone elses garbage cans are heaped over the top. My garbage is rarely over 1/4 full. This means I am doing a poor job of recycling and everyone else is doing a piss-poor job or none at all. Any waste is too much. Yes, the corporations are to blame. We are also. Identifying the culprits, however, is simply taking the low road. Deciding for sure what is to be done and identifying our individual needed actions is probably more helpful. Marc is, I'm sure, a responsible person who probably lives within his means (most landscape photographers have to). I am sure he is very conscious of how he impacts the environment. I am certain he walks the talk. I believe that singling out any culprit is the easy part. I also believe, however, that placing a photo as ugly as this among all of the pretty ones is a difficult step, but one needed to create awareness and open up discussions that may one day result in solutions. I also hope what I am writing here will force more readers to feel accountable and take part in formulating and carrying out these solutions. Don't take the low road, don't sit back and blame, take action. Using less and wasting less will go a long way, and more than likely, steer many of these corporations towards more responsible practices.