Fir Strip

Driving around where I live offers views of expansive timber clearings that reveal what life is like within the canopy. Where there is evidence of a creek, even if it's seasonal, the cutters are forbidden from taking trees that provide shade to that creek. This is done to maintain water temperatures in the tributaries they flow in to. Essentially protecting fish. It also reveals how the lower branches of Douglas Fir die off as the tree grows, conserving energy for vertical growth as they compete for light. To me, they look like sticks.

Anyway, this was mid day so I exposed it with conversion in mind. Click the image to see a larger version. This is a 16 x 10 crop that I had originally cropped most of the foreground out of. After staring at it for a bit, I decided to leave it in as the distance to the trees was farther than the height of the 150' trees, so to my eye, it sort of creates an illusion in scale. I drove past this spot a few times, and had to pull over 1/2 mile down the road because the roads here have drainage ditches a few inches from the road surface that require professional recovery efforts when encountered.

Update: 9/2/2026

After driving past a couple of clearings this past week, it dawned on me that these "scars" in the landscape leave me with mixed feelings. Grays Harbor, where these trees live, is the home of a lot of people who rely on lumber to feed their families, yet their activities led to a significant loss of habitat for native species, including the Spotted Owl. Being a more technical person vs an emotional one, I can't help but be fasinated by the visual impact these clearing have on me.

Fir Strip - Copalis Crossing