Mortality and Forestry

“Statistically speaking, you will die having missed almost everything.” – Linda Holmes

Linda Holmes wrote these words in 2011. For Linda this realization was tied to the vast number of books in existence in the world. By her very generous and back of the envelope accounting, a person such disposed could read two books or one really big book a week and accumulate 6,500 books by age 80. Even at that accelerated pace, an individual would be still only read a few books of certain genres and certainly miss the vast majority of the books ever written. The huge swaths of books written to date and the rate of new books published every year would make sure that, as she mentioned in the quote above, the reader would still effectively miss almost everything.

All Is Not Well In the Wildland Urban Interface

I have been spending the last few days staring at maps and thinking about communities. While communities are places to raise families, meet friends, work and create connections, in the eyes of those who exist in the world of wildland fire they are most often defined by a single question. Are they at risk?

Wildland fire, fire outside the confines of brick and mortar buildings, can certainly be a hostile environment to outsiders. It is filled with jargon that can be far from inviting for anyone who doesn’t know their FMO, how to find their PPE, or just exactly what an IC does. The important thing to know about wildland fire is that those who spend their careers managing fires when they do occur spend a lot of time thinking about one inconvenient acronym, WUI.

Simply put, wildland urban interface, wui for short, is any area where houses are next to a significant amount of plant life that has the habit of catching on fire. While the wildfires that make the news generally give the impression that it is only a problem in the Western part of the country. A quick look at the 2010 data on communities at risk, CAR for those inclined to brevity, from wildfire shows that it is largely a national problem.

Stanley Donwood and Spirits in the Forest

 I received an email last week from one Stanley Donwood. It was a newsletter he crafts every once in a while, and I always try to read them for A) artistic perspective and B) mention of Radiohead. Donwood has created all of the band's original artwork for nearly twenty years, which boggles my mind. Concert posters? Album sleeves? They grace several walls. I guess this makes me an art collector.

Anyway, this piece of mail caught my eye, for it not only touched on A and B, but stirred up item C, which lingers just as constantly in my mind: nature, forests, trees. He talks about an exhibit of paintings from his Holloway project, part of which emerged in Radiohead's The King of Limbs art. It's got me thinking about spirits we feel in the forest, if they should be feared, or revered, or both. Let's go with both.

Time-Lapse Photography

Just a friendly reminder of the beauty that exists in this world. Hat tip to The Daily Dish.

Very Little Stars from Timelapse, Inc. on Vimeo.

Jamie Scott