The Last Days of an Arboreal Acquaintance
Though already greatly diminished on the whole, rows upon rows of stately trees still stand at what's left of the Boardman Tree Farm, aligned ever so beautifully and shining ever so brightly golden for perhaps their last autumn, near Boardman, Oregon.
I first visited the Boardman Tree Farm when passing through part of eastern Oregon in the spring of last year and, at that time, I was blissfully unaware that the tree farm soon would be no more. There was so much to love about the feel of being within those trees: the seemingly endless rows, the elegant trunks rising up to support a rustling canopy above; the flickering, intermittent intrusions of sunlight; and the openness within the stands contrasting with visual convergence of the rows in every direction seeming to lead only to little doorways to the beyond.
I have to see this in all its golden autumn glory one of these days I thought.
Then someone told me that the whole of the vast tree farm had been sold, and would be soon be converted in part to vegetable plantings and the rest to a massive dairy. The place was so large (over 25,000 acres before the sale) it seemed hard to believe, so I looked it up. Sure enough, several earlier articles announced the sale, while others intoned that acres upon acres of trees were being quickly cleared and that there would not be many more autumns to see the trees.
I make no broader value judgments between tree farms, vegetable farms and dairy farms. All I know is that I like trees more as a photographer, and I quickly concluded that I was going to miss that wonderful place to which I'd only just been introduced.
I couldn't make it back out to Oregon last fall, but happily an opportunity arose this year. In the weeks leading up to my trip, information about how much had been cut already was a little hard to come by, but several sources indicated most were already gone, and I felt some nervousness that there wouldn't be any trees left to see by the time I got there.
So last week, when I caught up again with good friend and regular photographic travel companion Sky Matthews on a rainy day in Seattle, we hopped in the car and headed straight for Boardman. To our great relief and enjoyment, we of course found that there were several sections of trees remaining, and that they were magnificent in their stunning geometries and perfect seasonal color.
Thanks for viewing!
The Last Days of an Arboreal Acquaintance
Though already greatly diminished on the whole, rows upon rows of stately trees still stand at what's left of the Boardman Tree Farm, aligned ever so beautifully and shining ever so brightly golden for perhaps their last autumn, near Boardman, Oregon.
I first visited the Boardman Tree Farm when passing through part of eastern Oregon in the spring of last year and, at that time, I was blissfully unaware that the tree farm soon would be no more. There was so much to love about the feel of being within those trees: the seemingly endless rows, the elegant trunks rising up to support a rustling canopy above; the flickering, intermittent intrusions of sunlight; and the openness within the stands contrasting with visual convergence of the rows in every direction seeming to lead only to little doorways to the beyond.
I have to see this in all its golden autumn glory one of these days I thought.
Then someone told me that the whole of the vast tree farm had been sold, and would be soon be converted in part to vegetable plantings and the rest to a massive dairy. The place was so large (over 25,000 acres before the sale) it seemed hard to believe, so I looked it up. Sure enough, several earlier articles announced the sale, while others intoned that acres upon acres of trees were being quickly cleared and that there would not be many more autumns to see the trees.
I make no broader value judgments between tree farms, vegetable farms and dairy farms. All I know is that I like trees more as a photographer, and I quickly concluded that I was going to miss that wonderful place to which I'd only just been introduced.
I couldn't make it back out to Oregon last fall, but happily an opportunity arose this year. In the weeks leading up to my trip, information about how much had been cut already was a little hard to come by, but several sources indicated most were already gone, and I felt some nervousness that there wouldn't be any trees left to see by the time I got there.
So last week, when I caught up again with good friend and regular photographic travel companion Sky Matthews on a rainy day in Seattle, we hopped in the car and headed straight for Boardman. To our great relief and enjoyment, we of course found that there were several sections of trees remaining, and that they were magnificent in their stunning geometries and perfect seasonal color.
Thanks for viewing!