Burn scars

Gallery: Man & FaunaPosted June 24, 2009226 views3 comments

Remnants of the 2002 Hayman Burn in Colorado contrast with the wild rose. The fire was caused by reckless human behavior and destroyed a pristine, mature stand of ponderosa pine forest. At well over 100,000 acres, it was Colorado's worst wildfire and the landscape has been drastically transformed. Today, there are seedlings of aspen and fields of wildflowers among the charred remains of the trees. In some areas, you cannot see a living tree for as far as the eye can see.

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on June 26, 2009 at 10:18 PM

Neat photo Mel, just enough detail in the dark background to help explain the story.

Unfortunately, it's going to be a very common sight in Colorado in the coming years. The "reckless human behavior" that's going to do it is climate change and the explosion of pine beetle damage. Lot of dead and dying timber out there right now...

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on June 27, 2009 at 12:06 PM

Nice shot, Mel, good simple comp. Works well with the shot i just posted, dont you think?

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Pelzmann on July 3, 2009 at 3:36 AM

Mel, as a wildflower image, I like this a lot. Great color and separation from the background.

However, for an environmental context, I find the background far too dark, and could not comprehend that I'm looking at a chared tree trunk, without someone pointing it out. (My monitor is rather bright, so I doubt that we are seeing this much differently ??)

Registered on January 26, 2005, 27 Posts, 265 Comments