Diptych Series: Crossings. Keystone XL construction on State Highway 48. Oklahoma. Google Street View 2013.
In Crossings, the controversial delivery of tar sands oil to Port Arthur, Texas is examined at ground level through the dispassionate eye of Google Street View, the automated documentarian of our nation’s roadways. The 180° diptychs compiled here are composed of opposing camera views from each intersection between the Keystone XL pipeline corridor and the roving camera. This is a historical moment, captured incidentally, accessible for a year or so, and then deleted from the record at the next passing of the camera.
Voluntary Evacuation Zone. Orchard Nebraska. From the Keystone Mapping Project.
The Keystone XL Voluntary Evacuation Zone is based on the health department response to a diluted bitumen spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Drawn from the Keystone Mapping Project Google Earth view, these images form the basis for Thomas Bachand’s VEZ Grid Abstracts series, an exploration of both our perception of, and impact upon, the landscape — seen and unseen. Combining satelite imagery with custom mapping features, the panels examine the interplay of physical and human geography. In series, the photography reveals broader patterns and larger questions. For more, visit the Voluntary Evacuation Zone.
Voluntary Evacuation Zone. Approimatley milepost marker 86. Montana. From the Keystone Mapping Project.
The Keystone XL Voluntary Evacuation Zone is based on the health department response to a diluted bitumen spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Drawn from the Keystone Mapping Project Google Earth view, these images form the basis for Thomas Bachand’s VEZ Grid Abstracts series, an exploration of both our perception of, and impact upon, the landscape — seen and unseen. Combining satelite imagery with custom mapping features, the panels examine the interplay of physical and human geography. In series, the photography reveals broader patterns and larger questions. For more, visit the Voluntary Evacuation Zone.
Yosemite is an iconic landscape that has been closely examined by artists for well over a century. In keeping with this tradition, my photography of the park is varied and experimental. For more, visit my Yosemite and Digital History portfolios.
Yosemite is an iconic landscape that has been closely examined by artists for well over a century. In keeping with this tradition, my photography of the park is varied and experimental. For more, visit my Yosemite and Digital History portfolios.
Part of my new series, Old Growth, this work explores California’s redwood forests and the enigma of old growth. We treasure these primal forests, yet less than five percent remain. For the remainder of this week and periodically in the coming months I will be releasing new images.
More than that of leaves changing colors, Fall in the Sierra is a time of golden grasses. Above, the Upper Truckee River meanders toward the shore of Lake Tahoe.
This meadow is part of the largest wetland in the Tahoe basin, stretching back several miles along Highway 50 towards Echo Summit. In the last half century this area has seen dramatic changes. Christopher Soulard and Christian Raumann of the United States Geological Survey have compiled historic orthoimagery data on South Lake Tahoe, of which this meadow, being adjacent to Tahoe Keys, is of particular note. In fact, Google Earth used the USGS Tahoe data for its first historical imagery sample (read about it in the New York Times). The dredging of Tahoe Keys has created some of the most dramatic environmental damage to the Tahoe ecosystem.
Riverbank. Upper Truckee Meadow. South Lake Tahoe, California.
Today, the Upper Truckee is the focus of major environmental restoration. Of primary concern is a golf course that restricts and narrows the river’s flow and is a significant source of sedimentation into the lake. Over the last twenty years the realignment of the river through the golf course has, in some parts, eroded 50 feet of the embankment. The current plan calls for moving the golf course into undisturbed neighboring lands in Washoe Meadows State Park so as to restore the river’s natural flow and its adjoining riparian habitat. This plan has upset both golfers, who are concerned about increased course fees, and environmentalists, who wish to protect surrounding forest lands. The park enjoys the golf revenue and says that the forest land to be offset by the golf course is not endangered habitat and is scarcely used (by humans). Now that I know the park is there, I’ll go visit it. Just sayin’.
Read about the Upper Truckee restoration in the Sacramento Bee here. The Upper Truckee Restoration EIR and other project information can be found here.
Lake Tahoe from edge of pier. Sugar Pine Point State Park. California.
A couple of years ago on a warm, mid-summer day, we launched our kayak onto Rubicon Bay’s clear and smooth waters – so clear, it felt as if we were flying over the rippled sands 20 to 30 feet beneath Tahoe’s surface. Paddling toward deeper water, the sandbar suddenly ended and the lake bottom plunged into the darkened depths. As if suspended, we felt a sense of vertigo.
This year, after Labor Day, we returned once again to “fly” above Rubicon’s sandy bottom. To our dismay, the waters were clouded, the lake bottom detail indistinguishable and, as we paddled into deeper water, the green of the shallows simply faded to the black of the depths. To quote Marlin from Finding Nemo, “Good feeling gone.”
Following the publication of the 2011 State of the Lake Report by the Tahoe Environmental Research Center and its finding that lake clarity dropped by four feet in 2010 (to 64 feet), there were a number of articles on current conditions at Tahoe (UC Davis, Los Angeles Times, KQED). In recent decades Tahoe research has become increasingly sophisticated and comprehensive. While the Secchi disk depth-visibility measurement continues to be the benchmark on clarity, today, a more broad set of factors are being examined, including stream runoff, road dust, lake temperature and mixing, invasive species, forest conditions, and remote sensing data. It is clearly understood that Tahoe’s problems circulate with the waters and are not confined by borders. My summer Rubicon excursion leads me to believe that next year’s State of the Lake report will detail a steeper decline in clarity.
The buried lead in the report is that, just as the lake knows no borders, our political approach must not either. The authors underscore the need for continued cooperation between California and Nevada (i.e. support for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency – TRPA). Meanwhile, the media has given little attention to Nevada’s intent to pull out of TRPA. The state feels the bi-state agency hinders development. Many of us find this odd as TRPA exhibits a pro-developer bias and has yet to turn down a major project. Regardless, California’s politicians are scrambling to negotiate with Nevada. Nevada’s tactics are familiar: invent a crisis whose resolution serves your special interest.
Lake Tahoe now finds itself the latest target of the deregulators and science deniers.
