Released 2007-12-22

Lodgepole Pines, Pinus Contorta

Fire tends to spread rapidly through dense lodgepole forests. The pines have thin bark, and so succumb easily to fire, which strips the trees of their crowns, needles and smaller branches, leaving these eerily beautiful "ghost forests" in their wake. Such forests are far from dead, however. The cones of the lodgepole require intense heat to open and allow the seeds to be released. Elk prefer to eat the bark of burned lodgepole over non-burned lodgepole; beetles eat the burned wood; and woodpeckers find an abundant meal of insects living under the burned bark.

This is a limited edition photograph with a total of 500 photos printed across all sizes, as noted