West by Northwest

Fire Lookout Tower Maleur National Forest, OregonFire spotters have long been seasonally employed in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, where from tall towers they watch the surrounding forest for signs of fire. Many of the towers have been replaced by electronic and satellite systems.

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Olympic National Forest logging operation. On a timber "side" (designated cut area) loggers set cable chokers around the trunks of cut down giant old growth Douglas fir trees. The logs are then hauled up over head on a cable system to a landing where they are loaded onto log trucks, Choker setting is one of the most dangerous jobs in logging as the cables sometimes snap sending huge logs at the workers below.

Clear cut British Columbia. In the Escalante watershed Canadian logging concerns clear cut the forests in such drastic and damaging ways that a decade of environmental protests were launched to reform British Columbia's forest management practices

Clear cut OlympicNational Forest. Environmentalists have long fought against the practice of clear cutting which causes dramatic erosion of fragile soils and fills critical salmon streams with silt

Olympic National Forest, Washington State. Logging operations in the Pacific Northwest have been the source of great controversy because of over-cutting and consequent environmental damage. Forest

Angry logger in the 4th of July parade, Forks Washington. When privately owned timber lands on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State where over cut and out of marketable trees the timber industry started putting pressure on National Forest lands and the over cutting and environmental damage there led environmentalists using the Spotted Owl as an indicator species, to push for reduced logging, which in turn angered locals in the small timber industry based communities in the area.

At a 4th of July event, Forks Washington. Isolated logging communities on the Olympic Peninsula have been hard hit by court mandates in reducing logging operations to help preserve endangered species, like the spotted owl. Here a group of logging families in Forks Washington (photographed at an Independence Day celebration) reflect the sense of misgiving that an uncertain future produced in the community beginning in the early 1990s.

Young Logger Olympic National Forest. In timber dependent communities across the forest lands of the Pacific Northwest, working as a logger was for generations the best job option. But as the cutting of old growth timber has been more restricted the employment outlook for loggers has become more grim.

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When privately owned timber lands on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State where over cut and out of marketable trees the timber industry started putting pressure on National Forest lands and the over cutting and environmental damage there led environmentalists using the Spotted Owl as an indicator species, to push for reduced logging, which in turn angered locals in the small timber industry based communities in the area.

Interstate 5 runs through downtown Seattle past the ever expanding Seattle skyline

Stilt walkers in Seattle's Gasworks Park get some practice in advance of a performance at Mardi Gras celebration

At The Foundry, an event space in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, hundreds of Indian Expats, celebrate and gyrate to Indian popular music at the Bollywood New Year's Eve bash produced by Wicked Karma, a local company that specializes in producing events around India holidays and culture. While accurate numbers are hard to come by there is no question that the South Asian population in the Seattle area has grown dramatically as Microsoft, Amazon and dozens of other tech companies have hired qualified workers from overseas. These highly educated newcomers bring not only their intellectual prowess to the city but have also added a whole new cultural scene as they put down roots in the Pacific Northwest.

Street poets at the Ballard Sunday Street Market in Seattle. The freelancing authors will write you a poem for a nominal fee.

In typical Seattle winter weather a pedestrian and rental bikes viewed through a rain covered car window

Dressed for the weather - A stylish bull terrier takes a stroll in Seattle's Gasworks Park

An "anchor out" resident of Bainbridge Island Washington. Anchor outs, people who live on vessels permanently anchored in harbors, often draw the animus of local residents because they pay no taxes, can clog a harbor with vessels and cause pollution.

Floating Homes, Lake Union, Seattle Washington. At one time Seattle's houseboats where the low rent homes of leftists and artists. Now the floating homes with their exceptional views of the Seattle skyline and their cache and can easily sell for well over a million dollars

Floating Home Lake Union, Seattle. At one time Seattle's houseboats where the low rent homes of leftists and artists. Now the floating homes with their exceptional views of the Seattle skyline and their cache and can easily sell for well over a million dollars

Floating Home, Duncan British Columbia

Floating Home, Duncan British Columbia

Anchored out in Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island Washington. A tiny houseboat enjoys a view of the Seattle skyline. Anchor outs, people who live on vessels permanently anchored in harbors, often draw the animus of local residents because they pay no taxes, can clog a harbor with vessels and cause pollution.

Graduate student looks for endangered amphibian species near The Sisters Mountains in Oregon's Cascade Mountain range. Amphibians are often viewed as an indicator species of threatened environments. Indications are the rana cascadae , the Cascades frog and rana Aurora, the tiny red legs frog are threaten by climate change induced warming waters and diminished water flow in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.