Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Camel's feet spread apart to keep them from sinking into the sand.
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  • Camel's feet spread apart to keep them from sinking into the sand.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7803_1260607.JPG
  • The Mbuti drape nets between trees and flush game toward them.
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  • Sawdust falls as a sawmill operator saws into a log at the mill.
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  • A Bald Eagle in flight catches a fish with its talons. Their wingspans measure 7½ ft. The average weight is 10-12 pounds, some weigh up to 16 pounds. Bald Eagles can pick up and fly off with a fish or other prey items that weigh 4-5 pounds, any more weight than that is too heavy and they will stall out and crash.
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  • A detail showing a brown bear’s paws and claws while he is tranquilized to be radio-collared by state biologists.  <br />
Grizzly bears, as they are commonly known, are found in most of Alaska from the islands of the Southeast to the Arctic. Over 98 percent of the brown bear population resides in Alaska.<br />
The coastal brown bear is the world’s largest carnivorous land mammal. Nearly 45,000 brown bears (Ursus arctos), roam Alaska, weigh up to 1,100 pounds. Salmon is their primary food source.
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  • A bonobo with nail clippers at a language research center.
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  • Students attend a school in Ileret, Kenya.
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  • Fishermen in Komote, an El Molo village in Kenya's Lake Turkana region.
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  • An El Molo man, deformed from consuming the waters of Lake Turkana, uses a makeshift crutch.
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  • Children play atop a truckload of dried fish in the village of Selicho.
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  • Kara boys stand on the mud-caked shoreline of the Omo River.
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  • Overcome by religious frenzy, men help a woman lying on the ground.
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  • The road to Beni is nearly impassable during the wet season.
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  • Land yachts race the wind and each other across the Alvord Desert playa’s flat, dusty terrain. Fans of the sport flock to the ancient lake bed in search of speeds beyond most posted interstate highway limits. The world record stands above 116 mph. Sports enthusiasts race in high temperatures when the playa is dry enough to drive on.<br />
The desert lies to the east of Oregon's Steens Mountain, and Steen's Mountain Wilderness which is “the largest fault-block mountain in the northern Great Basin.”  It abruptly falls to the dry Alvord Desert 6,000 feet below.
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  • Blazing sunset leaves in shadow the famous gap in Kiger Gorge, atop Oregon's Steens Mountain. Steen's Mountain Wilderness is “the largest fault-block mountain in the northern Great Basin.”  The aerial view shows a forty mile long escarpment in southeastern Oregon has a notch cut out of the top and drops abruptly to the dry Alvord Desert, 5,500 feet below.<br />
Bulldozing down to basalt, Ice Age glaciers carved our huge gorges out of the Great Basin's largest fault block mountain. Beyond, Steens's east face plummets a vertical mile.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-56.JPG
  • Steen's Mountain Wilderness is “the largest fault-block mountain in the northern Great Basin.”  The aerial view shows a forty mile long escarpment in southeastern Oregon has a notch cut out of the top and drops abruptly to the dry Alvord Desert, 5,500 feet below.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680978.jpg
  • Aerial view of Hobet 21 mountain top removal coal mining site looms over one of the few remaining houses in Mud, W.V. Once this was a quiet rural community, but mining companies can legally come within 100 feet of a family cemetery and 300 feet from a home and they run 24 hours a day and seven days a week. <br />
Hobet 21 once produced about 5.2 million tons of coal, making it among the largest surface mines in the state. The Lincoln County mine expanded to fill in Connelly Branch creek, and after the company was bankrupt in 2015, the site was passed on to another firm who continued mining.<br />
The town of Mud hasn’t been much of a community in the couple of decades since the post office closed, but in 1998 around 60 residents remained. They had two churches and a ball field. In early 1997, Big John, the mine’s 20-story dragline, moved above Mud and more houses, near this one, were bought and destroyed.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023701.jpg
  • A gondola drifts in the lake beyond “Angel of the Waters,” a fountain rising from Bethesda Terrace that was created by sculptor Emma Stebbins (1815-1882), the first woman to receive a commission for a major public work in New York City. Bethesda Fountain, as it is commonly known, stands twenty-six feet high and ninety-six feet in diameter, remaining one of the largest fountains in New York.<br />
<br />
Designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux considered Bethesda Terrace to be the heart of Central Park. They envisioned a grand terrace overlooking the Lake.<br />
<br />
Stebbins worked on the design of the statue in Rome from 1861 until its completion seven years later. Cast in Munich, it was dedicated in Central Park celebrating the 1842 opening of the Croton Aqueduct, which brought fresh water from Westchester County into New York City. Stebbins likened the healing powers of the biblical pool to that of the pure Croton water that cascades from the fountain. The lily in the angel’s hand represents purity, while the four figures below represent Peace, Health, Purity, and Temperance.
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  • Three Mennonite kids are the last to get off the bus in Lazbuddie, Texas.<br />
<br />
Superintendent Joanna also has to drive the school bus for Lazbuddie schools but primarily is trying to figure out how to keep the school and community alive as they run out of water. When she started they had about 100 students now they have over 200 primarily from luring other communities children by offering an excellent robotics program and offering daycare. She had 90 days of water left for 16 families (teachers are housed at the school complex). The well got down to 15 feet of standing water. She got federal funds for a $360K well but who knows how long that will last. There are 88,000 wells around her in the TX panhandle that are poorly regulated and the water mining is affecting neighboring communities.
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  • Crossbeds of Navajo sandstone paint the Coyote Buttes in hues created by the precipitation of oxides. From a 3,000-foot-high escarpment to a canyon 2,500 feet deep, Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs National Monument encloses a host of geological wonders.<br />
<br />
The 280,000 acre wildness area is federally protected and a permit is required to reduce impact on the geological treasure.
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  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729-2.JPG
  • Lord of Sipan, important Moche burial site in Peru. The site was being looted but it was stopped and some tombs are restored with replicas to show what the graves looked like 1500 years ago. The treasure trove discovered included gold, silver, copper and semi-precious stones as well as hundreds of ceramic pots which contained food and drink for journey in the after life..  The Mochica leader was buried in all of this finery along with a warrior guard buried alive (with his feet cut off), three women, two assistants and a servant.
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  • Lord of Sipan, important Moche burial site in Peru. The site was being looted but it was stopped and some tombs are restored with replicas to show what the graves looked like 1500 years ago. The treasure trove discovered included gold, silver, copper and semi-precious stones as well as hundreds of ceramic pots which contained food and drink for journey in the after life..  The Mochica leader was buried in all of this finery along with a warrior guard buried alive (with his feet cut off), three women, two assistants and a servant.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187667.jpg
  • Steens Loop Road passes through winter sun that warms grasses on the high desert in Oregon's Steens Mountain.
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  • A rancher on horseback accompanied by his dog drives a herd a sheep through the open range and grasses of the high desert in Oregon's Steens Mountain.
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  • A  cinder cone in Diamond Craters, a monogenetic volcanic field southeast of Burns, Oregon. Basaltic lava flows were formed in the past 25,000 years and resemble a flat rocky area with small hills. The craters and vents, cinder cones and spatter cones, lava tubes are near Steen's Mountain Wilderness in the northern Great Basin.”
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  • The arid plateau north of the Grand Canyon is viewed from Navajo sandstone rocks of Coyote Buttes. From a 3,000-foot-high escarpment to a canyon 2,500 feet deep, Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs National Monument encloses a host of geological wonders.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-41.JPG
  • Shadows and sun sets on the arid plateau and rock face creating stunning colors of the Vermillion Cliffs.  From a 3,000-foot-high escarpment to a canyon 2,500 feet deep, Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs National Monument encloses a host of geological wonders.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-35.JPG
  • A moose forages amid the woodlands stands in tall grass near Anchorage, Alaska. Alces alces gigas is the largest member of the deer family. Adults range in size from 800-1600 pounds and can be 6 feet tall. Antlers are carried by only males.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-26.JPG
  • A lone man is silhouetted while watching a bonfire burn in the street outside the Cathdral in Loja.  San Pedro Y San Pablo is a Catholic religious-themed fiesta. Many of the indigenous festivals celebrating the movements of the sun and the harvests were incorporated into the Christian tradition, resulting in a syncretism of Catholic religious imagery and older indigenous beliefs.<br />
The Ecuadorian city is nestled in the Cuxibamba Valley at 7,000 feet in elevation.
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  • A wild horse trainer relaxes with her daughter and her feet up after a long session with a difficult horse.
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  • Family and friends build a bonfire on a secluded beach on Prince of Wales Island.<br />
The main island includes hundreds of adjacent smaller islands—a total of more than 2,600 square miles with 990 miles of coastline and countless bays coves, inlets, and points.<br />
The landscape is characterized by steep, forested mountains and deep U-shaped valleys, streams, lakes, saltwater straits, and bays that were carved by the glacial ice that once covered the entire area. The spruce-hemlock forest covered land is full of muskegs, or bogs. Most of the mountains on the island are 2,000 to 3,000 feet tall.
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  • Mont Blanc rises in the distance behind craggy peaks and ridges. Drifting morning fog lifts revealing the snow-covered White Mountain, the highest in the Alps measuring nearly 16,000 feet. Located in the watershed between valleys in Italy and France, ownership of the summit has been a subject of historical dispute. <br />
The mountain is famous for the emergence of modern alpine mountaineering  after the first ascent in 1786.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024116.jpg
  • Mont Blanc rises in the distance behind craggy peaks and ridges as drifting morning fog lifts revealing the "White Mountain."  It is the highest in the Alps measuring nearly 16,000 feet. Located in the watershed between valleys in Italy and France, ownership of the summit has been a subject of historical dispute. <br />
It is famous for the emergence of modern alpine mountaineering  after the first ascent in 1786. It is easily accessible because of that, unfortunately claims many climbing deaths annually.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024115.jpg
  • A man boards an icy lift up to Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak in the Wetterstein Mountains. Three glaciers flank the mountain that is just over 9,700 feet high. The first ascent was in 1820, but today cable cars transport skiers and sightseers to the top for a view that is obstructed on snowy white-out on this day.
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  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729.jpg
  • A 2.8 billion gallon sludge pond of toxic chemicals & heavy metals sits above a community in West Virginia. Coal slurry contains elevated levels of chlorides, sulfates, arsenic, lead, mercury, and selenium. Coal companies dispose of coal cleaning process creating a slurry in massive impoundments which are hundreds of feet deep and have failed or overflowed. Coal slurry impoundments represent a major threat to public health andaquatic organisms due to potential contamination of groundwater and streams.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023726.jpg
  • A man with a shovels coal sludge after a mining accident occurred when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine in October 2000. An estimated 306 million gallons of oozing black waste containing arsenic and mercury killed everything in a creek and measured five feet deep covering nearby yards and surrounding some homes. Drinking water was contaminated for 27,000 residents as tributaries carried it to the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. It is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States and although largely cleaned up, water quality issues exist and residents still find sludge and slurry in surface water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023652.jpg
  • Streams are polluted with coal sludge from a mining accident that occurred when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine in October 2000. An estimated 306 million gallons of oozing black waste containing arsenic and mercury killed everything in a creek and measured five feet deep covering nearby yards and surrounding some homes. Drinking water was contaminated for 27,000 residents as tributaries carried it to the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. It is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States and although largely cleaned up, water quality issues exist and residents still find sludge and slurry in surface water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023642.jpg
  • A young adult moose forages amid the woodlands stands in tall grass near Anchorage, Alaska. Alces alces gigas is the largest member of the deer family. Adults range in size from 800-1600 pounds and can be 6 feet tall. Antlers are carried by only males.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705773.jpg
  • Sandstone-capped escarpment glows in the setting sun in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. The 280,000-acre wilderness is located at the Utah/Arizona border where the wooded Paria Plateau stretches south and  drops 3,000 feet at the monument’s namesake—the Vermilion Cliffs.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705697.jpg
  • A moose forages amid the woodlands stands in tall grass near Anchorage, Alaska. Alces alces gigas is the largest member of the deer family. Adults range in size from 800-1600 pounds and can be 6 feet tall. Antlers are carried by only males.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705685.jpg
  • Aerial view of Pilot Rock at twilight. The iconic rock face is a plug of volcanic basalt that juts 400 feet above Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument in a crossroads of mountain ranges, geological eras and habitats. The 65,000-acre monument is at the junction of the Oregon and Cascades and Siskiyou Mountains with Mt. Shasta on the left rising in the far distance across the state line in California.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680972.jpg
  • A stately oak tree stands in the snow-covered grand meadow of Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York.  A symbol of strength and endurance, the oak can live 500 to 600 years and grow up to 100 feet if left undisturbed.<br />
<br />
Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s first and greatest landscape architect, planned the city’s system of six major parks and connecting parkways representing one of his largest bodies of work. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the system comprises seventy five percent of the city’s parkland. 
During the 1901 Pan American Exposition, Buffalo was celebrated not only as the City of Light, but the City of Trees.
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  • Morning light haloes the giant conifers in Lady Bird Johnson Memorial Grove in Redwoods National Park. Saved from clear cuts, ancient redwoods, some measuring 300 feet tall, and Douglas fir rise above the forest floor. The park established in 1968, has been under rehabilitation since its' inception to restore 70,000 acres of second-growth forest and remove about 300 miles of abandoned and inaccessible logging roads.
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  • Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore located on the northeast side of Lake Michigan. Approximately 4 square miles in size, it was formed by retreating glaciers only 11,800 years ago.  Dunes on the Pierce Stocking Scenic drive - Lake Michigan overlook, 450 feet above the water.
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  • Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, a monument to the Ecuador in Quito, Ecuador. Tourists on the plaza that reflects the buildings and view the sites of a monument that was surveyed and platted a few hundred feet in the wrong location.
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  • A cactus forest in the Oaxacan highlands of Mexico. The massive candelabras of the succulent Myrtillocactus geometrizans can grow up to 16 feet tall.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187572.jpg
  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729-1.JPG
  • A Navajo woman lets her goats out to graze in Canyon De Chelly National Monument, a vast park in northeastern Arizona, on Navajo tribal lands. Its prominent features include Spider Rock spire, about 800-feet tall, and towering sandstone cliffs surrounding a verdant canyon. Inhabited by several Native American peoples for millennia, the area is dotted with prehistoric rock art.
    MELISSA FARLOW_06103_495879.jpg