Logs to China

Logs are loaded on to the deck of the Sun Ruby out of Hong Kong. Up and down the West Coast, log exports to China are booming. Over the first six-months of 2011, the Port of Coos Bay shipped 56,000 MBF on around twelve vessels. It’s the most active year since 1996. 

My photo, "Logs to China," is making the rounds with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It is part of a photo story I did several months ago about massive exports of raw logs from forests in the Pacific Northwest, and the impact these huge shipments are having on local businesses, labor and the forest itself, whether privately or publicly held. 

I first posted the photo last year on the agency's State of the Environment website, and it was soon chosen as "picture of the day." Now, the EPA may reproduce it for a traveling exhibit. The power of storytelling in pictures is unbridled.

I'm working now on some "industrial photography" projects, to continue to highlight issues raised by the intersection of industry and the environment.