2009: One Earth Award - Winner
Thomas Haney (United States of America)
The lone fir
It was late afternoon when Thomas came upon this scene outside Forks, Washington, while documenting old-growth logging in the Pacific Northwest. Loggers had left a single Douglas fir standing in a clearcut area, perhaps to help reseed the area for future logging. 'As I walked towards it on the muddy road, criss-crossed with the tracks of logging trucks, I saw the reflection in the puddle,' says Thomas. 'It was a powerful image, reminding me of the towering forest that once stood here,' he says. This area has been logged before, so this tree is likely to have been planted as part of a mono-age crop, vastly different from the multilayered forests that once blanketed the region. 'Clearcutting has long been a focal point of the environmental movement, and while it seems to be falling out of favour in North America, it's still the preferred method around the world.'
Minolta Maxxum 7 + Minolta 20-35mm f3.5-4.5 lens, + .3 graduated-split neutral-density filter; 2 sec at f16; Fujichrome Velvia 50.
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