Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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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.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-58.JPG
  • 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
  • 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.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-57.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
  • State Street and the Chicago Theatre on a rainy night.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MT5887_1345813.jpg
  • Tourists gather to wait for a bus on snow-covered streets in trendy Courmayeur. It is a busy ski season in the area of Mont Blanc on the Italian side of the Alps.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024036.jpg
  • Snow dusted a sequoia tree located in the southern portion of Yosemite National Park. The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite and is home to over 500 mature giant sequoias. The national park idea is rooted in the Mariposa Grove. In 1864 President Lincoln signed legislation protecting the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley for "public use, resort, and recreation." This landmark legislation holds an important place in our country's history and was enacted at a time when the nation was embroiled in the Civil War. For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government set aside scenic natural areas to be protected for the benefit of future generations. Later added to Yosemite National Park in 1906, the Mariposa Grove is a popular feature for visitors.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968657.jpg
  • A crisp early morning after a freshly fallen snow in the Mendenhall Valley at an inn near Juneau.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075150.jpg
  • Tourists don blue jackets and hike in the rain to Mendenhall Glacier through the Tongass National Forest. The region earns its reputation for receiving up to 200 inches of rain a year creating a lush, green and moss-covered environment.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges framing an overlook of the Inside Passage from Douglas Island and the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. Sunset comes early and days are short in the winter months with approximately 7 hours of light.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075060.jpg
  • Cruise ships dock at Ketchikan's harbor, while another waits its' turn. In spite of the 200 inches of rain the region receives every year, nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. As many as six cruise ships make daily stops and as many as 500 a year. The Inside Passage is a network of channels between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry.<br />
The former logging town of Ketchikan, now relies on tourism. Travelers can shop for native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
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  • Snowy winter view of King Ludwig II's Schloss Neuschwanstein Castle. The 19th century palace is perched on rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau in Bavaria. It was intended as a private residence but the King lived there for only 172 days. It was opened to the public shortly after his death. <br />
It is the dreamy inspiration for Cinderellas's Castle in Sleeping Beauty.
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  • A widow looks forward to the ritual of checking her mailbox daily. Her faithful canine companion Leica waits patiently along the snowy road in the Alps.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024013.jpg
  • Aerial view of a drag line that scrapes through rock after a explosives blast away the top of mountains. A fresh snow contrasts the blackened coal that is revealed. Mountaintop removal mining devastates the landscape, turning areas that should be lush with forests and wildlife into barren moonscapes.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023728.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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  • Campers Elizabeth and Tad Morrow pitch their tent in the rain at Glacier's Two Medicine Lake.
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  • Yin Qi Xing Indoor Skiing Site.
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  • Taillights blur as a bus squeezes through building on the narrow streets of the Swiss village of Santa Maria. The charm of the mountain communities draws tourists, but the streets were built long before gas-powered transportation.
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  • Twilight falls on the Ladin village of LaVal in the snow-covered Dolomites. Perched on the lush green, mountain hillside is 15th century Gothic style Christian Church of Santa Barbara.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7139_1024130.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_1023729-2.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
  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains, illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
The Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
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  • A religious Ladin man reads a newspaper while watching a Catholic funeral on television in the kitchen of his farm house in the Dolomites. The community is close-knit and have a language unique to their region in LaVal in the Italian Alps.
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  • A rainy night in Chicago on State Street.
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  • Strong winds blow rain from a storm cloud that violently erupts with loud claps of thunder that sends a band of horses running for safety. The young foal runs behind, following her mother and another mare.<br />
The wild horse herd nervously watched as a storm approached in central South Dakota. When lightning and thunder began, they galloped to a far away fence where they could go no further. The "fight or flight" instinct of behavior is powerful and horses often panic and flee when they sense danger.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges that  overlook the Inside Passage. Stillness is only broken by the sound of skiers breaking through crusty snow to view the sunset view on top of Douglas Island nearby Juneau.
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  • Frosty morning snow on a canoe and trees surrounding a small lake near Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Fog slowly lifts in the valley following a morning snow in Juneau near the Mendenhall Glacier and surrounding mountain peaks in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • Icy winds blow snow clouds blow over the jagged ridges of the South Chilkat Mountains that rise above Southeast Alaska's coast.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075061.jpg
  • Crisp winter air clears over freshly snow-dusted trees in Tongass National Forest looking across the Icy Strait in the Inside Passage toward Southeast Alaska’s Chilkat Mountain Range. The region is known for it’s harsh winds and rugged landscape as well as it’s beauty.<br />
Chilkat, in the native Tlingit language, means “storage container for salmon.” The name was given because of warm springs that keep the Chilkat River from freezing during the winter as it flows through the mountain range, thus allowing salmon to spawn late in the season, and creating safe “storage.”
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  • Japanese tourists view the Matterhorn and pose for photos with the iconic St. Bernard dogs in the Alps. Around two million tourists visit annually to Switzerland's most popular destination nearby Zermatt.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024117.jpg
  • A glacier recedes near the Matterhorn leaving ridges and jagged peaks where there was once ice. Much of the iconic mountain was carved away by glacial erosion. <br />
The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes Matterhorn geology in "All About Glaciers." Cirques are rounded hollows or bowl shapes after a glacier has melted away. Aretes are jagged narrow rides created when two glaciers meet eroding on both sides. And horns are created when several cirque glaciers erode until all that is left is a steep, pointed peak with sharp ridge-like Arêtes leading to the top.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024113.jpg
  • Morning fog rises over a summit cross on Zinalrothorn and other mountain peaks in the Alps surrounding the Matterhorn.
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  • Morning fog rises from craggy mountain peaks in the Alps surrounding the Matterhorn. The Alps range formed when two tectonic plates of Africa dn Eurasia slowly collided millions of years ago creating some of highest peaks in Europe.<br />
Rugged Zinalrothorn and Weisshorn in the background.
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  • A blanket is rolled onto the Pitztal Glacier to prevent snow from melting. It is a method workers use to combat the effects of climate change and global warming.  Integral to the local economy, ski resorts need protection from higher temperatures that melt the ice.
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  • Monday is laundry day at Val Mustair as nuns fold a flowered sheet in the convent courtyard. The world-famous Benedictine Convent and a UNESCO World Heritage Site is in the Swiss Alps. Founded in the 8th century, the Christian convent is home to Benedictine nuns since the 12th Century. Eleven make their home behind closed walls, living a life of commitment to poverty and celibacy. Each nun has her work and they come together for meals and prayer.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024095.jpg
  • A Ladin family travels to church in LaVal on a horse-drawn sled. The brothers and sister keep to old traditions that include an ethnic language only spoken in the isolated village in the Dolomites. The Church of Santa Barbara is a 15th century Gothic building.
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  • View of the iconic Matterhorn and surrounding mountains in the Alps.  First ascent of the 14,692-foot mountain was in 1865 although four climbers died on the descent. <br />
The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes Matterhorn geology in "All About Glaciers." Cirques are rounded hollows or bowl shapes after a glacier has melted away. Aretes are jagged narrow rides created when two glaciers meet eroding on both sides. And horns are created when several cirque glaciers erode until all that is left is a steep, pointed peak with sharp ridge-like Arêtes leading to the top.
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  • Slovenians walk along a snow-covered path to a hilltop church near Ljubljana.
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  • 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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  • Twilight view of snow-capped Olympic mountains and foothills below.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7061_760088.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.jpg
  • Aerial view of snow covered mountain top removal mining site. After blasting the top of a mountain, trucks remove debris dumping dirt and rock into valleys and streams destroying watersheds. Over 1,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been buried and 300,000 acres of diverse temperate hardwood forests obliterated with valley hills like the white V in the foreground. Pollution from toxic chemicals fill sludge ponds and in flooding, contaminate drinking water. A moonscape of unusable land is left.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996789.jpg
  • Rain that never hits the ground, virga of low-lying clouds paints a dramatic sky above Steens Mountains, a 30-mile long massif in southern Oregon. Tail lights cresting a hill are barely visible on a single lane road shared by ranchers, miners, and recreational users.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680976.jpg
  • A rushing stream flows through woods blanketed in snow in Niagara reservation that surrounds the area around Niagara Falls. Frederick Law Olmsted, America's first landscape designer, worked with both U.S. and Canadian officials to make a plan to preserve the natural beauty from logging and overuse.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968648.jpg
  • Snow dusted a sequoia tree located in the southern portion of Yosemite National Park. The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite and is home to over 500 mature giant sequoias. The national park idea is rooted in the Mariposa Grove. In 1864 President Lincoln signed legislation protecting the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley for "public use, resort, and recreation." This landmark legislation holds an important place in our country's history and was enacted at a time when the nation was embroiled in the Civil War. For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government set aside scenic natural areas to be protected for the benefit of future generations. Later added to Yosemite National Park in 1906, the Mariposa Grove is a popular feature for visitors.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_968594.jpg
  • Shrouded in a light, misty snow, Chapin Parkway is one of seven tree-lined boulevards planned for the Buffalo, New York park system. Although other cities have implemented this kind of plan, it was in 1868 that Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux tried to integrate a system of parks and parkways for the first time.<br />
<br />
Olmsted designed the parkways so that within steps of each resident’s door was the entrance to a park-like setting. The parkways in Olmsted’s day were smoothly paved and intended solely for use of private carriages. Featuring 200-foot rights of way and flanked by several rows of trees, they were designed to provide open space for the neighborhoods through which they passed.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6560_956194.jpg
  • Cars drive down a misty stretch of National Road in winter.
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  • Bruce Thompson watches the rain from the porch of Shirley's Cafe in St. George, Georgia. The 85-year-old is a retired turpentine camp manager, in a town which produces turpentine.
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  • A small breed of wild horse, brought over from Tahiti, stands in the rain.
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  • Teenagers under an umbrella on East Nanjing Road.
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  • People walking in Shenzhen on a rainy night.
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  • A man eating at the Huangsha Live Seafood Market.
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  • Early morning rays of sunlight peek over jagged peaks in the Dolomite Mountains, a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbering 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7139_1024144.TIF
  • Aerial view of some of the 16,000 participants in the Ski Marathon as Nordic skiers trek across frozen upper Engadine valley. The winter event has been hosted since 1969 drawing athletes and tourists to mountain communities around Saint Moritz in the Alps.
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  • A Ladin man collects a pail of water from a cattle trough and traverses carefully across a sheet of ice. Life is hard in rural, isolated villages like LaVal in the Italian Alps.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7139_1024129.JPG
  • Evening bright lights illuminate the town of Martigny, winter home of  St. Bernard dogs of Alps fame. Nestled between the snow-capped mountains in the Alps, it is a junction of roads that join Switzerland with Italy and France.
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  • Thrill seekers wear dry suits to ice dive in St. Moritz Lake in the Swiss Alps. The Alpine resort town draws visitors year around and is known as a ritzy and glamorous playground for European tourists.
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  • Aerial view of a rain cloud over a snaking river.
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  • An aerial view of Australian landscape with hills, rivers, and rain.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763233.JPG
  • An artistic view of trees through rain-drenched glass.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763232.JPG
  • An aerial view of a flooded river and rain storm in distance.
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  • Australian man looks up at the falling monsoon rain.
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  • An aerial view of a coffee-colored river with rain in distance.
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  • In spite of the 200 inches of rain the area receives every year, nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. As many as six cruise ships make daily stops - and as many as 500 a year - bringing tourists on the Inside Passage, the route through a network of passages between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry.<br />
One of the stops in Alaska’s Panhandle is the former logging town of Ketchikan. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
    MM7258_20050819_07149.tif
  • Store window reflections mirror cruise ships arriving to unload shoppers and sightseers in the former logging town of Ketchikan located in Alaska’s Panhandle. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former red-light district during the Gold Rush.
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  • A cross country skier traverses a snowy trail near the train that passes through spectacular Alps scenery negotiating 55 tunnels and 196 bridges.
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  • A wild horse struggles to find food in the snow packed Ochoco mountains. They are adept at pawing at ground under trees where drifts are not as deep.
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  • Snow blows across an icy, wintery back road in Steens Mountain as harsh weather comes to Oregon's high desert.
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  • Portrait of a wild horse in the snow-covered Ochoco National Forest in the Big Summit Wild Horse Territory in Oregon. The origins of the herd are not entirely clear according to the U.SD. Forest Service. Early accounts describe local ranchers in the 1920s turning loose quality animals from a good breeding stock to ensure a future supply of good horses. Recent genetic testing has linked the Ochoco Mustangs to Iberian and Andalusian stock, leaving much to be discovered about their true heritage.
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  • A wild mustang trudges through snow pawing at drifts foraging for grasses to survive on in the Ochoco Mountains.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges that  overlook the Inside Passage, stunting the trees that frame the view on top of Douglas Island nearby Juneau.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1086959.jpg
  • Cross country skier glides along side his dog as snow falls on frozen Mendenhall Lake surrounded by trees at the base of the glacier in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • A storm clears creating a serene landscape along the Mendenhall River after a light, morning snow on trees and surrounding mountains in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • Sunlight kisses a snow-dusted peak in the Dolomite Mountains. The mountain range in the northern Italian Alps numbers 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters. The striking landscape features vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys. The geology is marked by steeples, pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms and karst systems. The characteristic rock of the Dolomites consists of fossilised coral reefs formed during the Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago) by organisms and sedimentary matter at the bottom of the ancient tropical Tethys Ocean.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_1024145.jpg
  • 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
  • A blanket is rolled onto the Pitztal Glacier to keep ice from melting and  protect the ski industry in the Alps.<br />
Glacial melts first recorded at the start of the 19th century—a point that also coincides with the start of the industrial age and burning of large amounts of fossil fuels. Since then the glaciers have lost between 30 to 40% of their area and nearly half their volume.  The coverings remind us of little mountains they are creating out of felt.
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  • A nun walks through the garden dusted with snow before the planting season begins at Val Mustair, a world-famous Benedictine Convent and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Swiss Alps.  Founded in the 8th century, it has been home to Benedictine nuns since the 12th Century.
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  • Twilight falls on the quiet, Ladin village of LaVal in the Dolomites where the church stands high on the hillside. The picturesque community in the Alps depends on agriculture and crafts.
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  • Skiers assemble high atop Aguille du Midi in the French Alps near Mont Blanc. A cable car lift takes tourists one way or round trip from Chamonix for a view of the snow-covered mountain scenery at 3,842 meters. Some skiers ready themselves  for the challenge of a steep, downhill slope.
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  • An evening view of the snow-covered resort town of Sestriere, Italy. Olympic alpine skiing competition was held on the slopes in the Alps during the 2006 competition and now draws tourists to the quiet mountain region.
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  • A logger takes a coffee break near a campfire  while cutting trees in a snow-dusted forest near Lake Bled.
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  • Tourists carry umbrellas to make their way up snow-covered streets during a winter storm in Fussen, Germany.
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  • "Wild men" in suits of tree lichen celebrate Schleicherlaufen. It is a similar cultural tradition to Carnival but it is held once every five years in early spring when light wins over darkness of winter. Men collect moss in the woods for weeks before and women in Telfs sew it onto clothing to make the costumes for the parade.
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  • Colorful buildings line the banks of the Inn River with its source located in the Engadine region of the Swiss Alps. Flowing through Innsbruck, seen here, it eventually enters the Danube  River.
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  • A young evergreen tree doubled over in deep snow.
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  • A stand of snow-dusted evergreen trees on a hillside.
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  • A stand of snow-dusted evergreen trees on a hillside.
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  • Twilight view of snow-capped Olympic mountains.
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  • Mount Olympus and other snow-capped peaks in the Olympic mountains.
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  • Mount Olympus and its sister peaks.
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  • Children playing in the snow on a hillside outside their home in Sylvester.
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  • Snow accents the contours of a fresh valley fill at a coal mine site. Tops of mountains are blasted away and flattened to reveal a small seam of coal, and the rock and debris is dumped into V-shaped valleys filling in stream beds.
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  • A dirt road cuts through a sagebrush sea to dark, cloudy skies of a distant, looming, rain storm. Sagebrush ecosystems cover vast stretches of western North America creating rangeland habitat for animals such as pronghorn antelope, black-tailed jackrabbits and sage-grouse.
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  • Morning sun kisses the icy tops of winter trees in snow blanketed New York’s Central Park. An elevated view shows a walker following a curved path planned by Frederick Law Olmsted to create a greater sense of space and mystery about what was to come around the next bend.<br />
Olmsted partnered with Calvert Vaux to plan “Greensward,” and won a design competition to make the what became a beloved urban park. When the idea was conceived, New York was much smaller and no one could imagine the open space surrounded by a city with tall buildings. Olmsted was a visionary and understood that man needed nature to combat the stresses of city life.  Construction began in 1858  and was completed fifteen years later. Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and is now managed by Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit which contributes eighty five percent of the park’s $37.5 budget.
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  • A man with umbrella scurries across Bethesda Terrace in Central Park pelted by a summer rain shower.
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  • Winter view of cascading Niagara Falls where mist and spray form a crust of ice that builds in the freezing water.
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  • Twilight scene from above snow-covered New York's Central Park. An elevated view shows a curved road planned by Frederick Law Olmsted to create a greater sense of space and mystery about what was to come around the next bend.<br />
Olmsted partnered with Calvert Vaux to plan “Greensward,” and won a design competition to make the what became a beloved urban park. When the idea was conceived, New York was much smaller and no one could imagine the open space surrounded by a city with tall buildings. Olmsted was a visionary and understood that man needed nature to combat the stresses of city life.  Construction began in 1858  and was completed fifteen years later. Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and is now managed by Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit which contributes eighty five percent of the park’s $37.5 budget. More than thirty-five million visitors to Manhattan come to the park annually.
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  • A rustic gazebo shelter perched on a frozen lake after a winter's snow in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The 585 acre public green space that opened in 1867 was designed by the influential landscape architecture team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.  Prospect Park Alliance was formed in 1987 to help maintain and preserve Olmsted and Vaux’s work. They have rebuilt the designers’ rustic shelters with the original methods—no nails, only pegs and dowels to keep the wooden lakeside structures together.
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  • A young hockey player dressed in a red snowsuit heads for the frozen lake in Mount Royal Park. Montreal's city park is beloved by in all four seasons with skiers, skater, hikers and bikers. It is a magnificent urban green space featuring 200 hectares of biodiversity and natural beauty. Inaugurated in 1876, it was planned by Frederick Law Olmsted who is famous for creating New York's Central Park.
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