Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • A gold miner blasts soil into a sluice with a water hose.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6570_706636.JPG
  • Men stand on a bamboo structure fixing mining equipment in a muddy amalgam pit they use to sluice gold..
    Gold_20060421_01800.tif
  • Men work on mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01790.tif
  • Drivers of four-wheeling, off-road vehicles compete while sliding through a slippery race course of muck at a weekend mud bogging contest on Prince of Wales Island. Competitors try to beat the clock as they drive through a water-logged muddy course.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075130.TIF
  • A bulldozer works in a slurry of mud pushing rock that is washed at a gold mine near Coldfoot, Alaska. Gold was discovered in 1899 and prosoectors abandoned it five years later. The area was used as a service stop for trucks for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline beside the "haul road" or Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay in the North Slope.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705769.jpg
  • Kara boys stand on the mud-caked shoreline of the Omo River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306555.TIF
  • Suri covers himself with clay body paint for ceremonial pole fights.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306536.JPG
  • Suri cover themselves with clay body paint for ceremonial pole fights.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306429.TIF
  • A pair of salmon carcasses float in the water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260929.JPG
  • Fish inspectors in surplus tanks get stuck in pursuit of poachers.<br />
<br />
 An anti-poaching enforcement trip starts in Sobolevo, the salmon poaching epicenter. Men ride on tanks and in boats attempting to spot poachers who put out nets to fish–they can see where sediment on the rocks was washed away and a net was dragged. Their suspicions are confirmed when they find spilled caviar. They follow many paths into the woods finding the poacher camp. <br />
<br />
The patrols are just outside Soboleva in the heart of the most poached area of Kamchatka. Soboleva is on the Sea of Okhotsk, just off the Kamchatka shelf and is only accessible by MI-8 helicopter.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248214.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River where the landscape is destroyed by crowds digging for precious metal.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223026.JPG
  • Workers shovel and dig in an illegal gold mine on the riverbanks of the Pra River. The landscape is devastated in the process of obtaining the precious metal.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223019.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River in Ghana. They worked in the tailings left by large industrial mines until run out by the military so they moved to riverbanks and work in a ruined landscape.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223018.TIF
  • A teenager works with miners sluicing for gold at an improvised, illegal mine.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223016.JPG
  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River. The ruined landscape causes environmental damage that is not repaired.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222970.TIF
  • Indonesian farmers illegally dig for gold undercutting a torn up riverbank in Borneo.<br />
Thousands of workers have left their fields to join Indonesia’s gold rush of artisanal mining for the chance to make five dollars a day.<br />
<br />
Eastern Java has high unemployment, and many migrant workers initially came to Kalimantan to do artisanal timber work. But the government stomped out small operations in favor of two big companies so they could control the industry. All the artisanal timber workers switched to gold. <br />
<br />
Eastern Java is overcrowded and the government has an official transmigration program to Kalimantan. Workers earn more so they camp having access only to water from the amalgam ponds where they bath and drink.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198340.TIF
  • The mud-choked road to Beni is nearly impassable in any vehicle during the wet season.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976465.TIF
  • The mask of a medicine man at the door where  Pygmy boys are secluded before the rituals signifying their manhood.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976455.JPG
  • Plastic buckets and truck parts are used to prospect for gold.  Small time gold prospecting creates newly carved roads destroying the northeastern Congo in the  Ituri Forest. <br />
<br />
Gold fever is contagious in northeastern Congo, where the metal finances local warlords. Rocks are smashed and washed by hand in search of yellow flecks.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972266.TIF
  • Traders push goods hundreds of miles by bicycle along the muddy Trans-African Highway. Rain can't stop the human flood of those who push through to resupply newly minted gold mines in the Ituri. It is the main east/west highway in DR Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972263.TIF
  • Pygmies girls daub each other with clay to beautify their bodies. They also do this in solidarity with the boys’ for their initiation into manhood ceremony called nKumbi
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972254.TIF
  • An aerial view of a  river and tributary streams.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763266.JPG
  • Two men with dogs sitting in mud along a road as a storm approaches.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763254.TIF
  • A truck stuck in a muddy road with people standing about watching.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763243.JPG
  • Three men contemplate the best way to cross a flooded dirt road.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763208.JPG
  • Areas of Borneo have been turned into a moonscape by illegal gold miners in Central Kalimantan. Indonesian farmers turn their hoes to mining, illegally digging for gold on a torn up riverbank in Borneo. For the chance to make five dollars a day, thousands have left their fields to join Indonesia’s gold rush. East Java has high unemployment and there are many migrant workers on Kalimantan (Borneo) that came from Java initially to do artisanal timber work. The government stomped out the little timber guys in favor of two big companies so they could control (read “profit from”) the industry. So all the artisanal timber workers switched to gold. Miners test in the 1000-ppm plus range for mercury (normal is 170 to 300). Eastern Java is severely overcrowded and the government has an official transmigration program over to Kalimantan. In Eastern Java they can earn about 100RP a day hoeing the fields. Here they can earn upwards of 30,000-60,000RP ($3-$6) a day. So it is worth it to camp in this area, having only the water (full of mercury) from the amalgam ponds to bathe and drink.
    Gold_20060420_01098.tif
  • An aerial view of a  river and tributary streams near Wyhdham, Australia
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112.tif
  • A truck stuck up to its axles in mud on a flooded road near Wyndham, Australia. The driver is attempting to place rock and tree limbs under the tire for a more firm foundation to drive out of the muck.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112.tif
  • Men work on mining equipment in a muddy pit while searching for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01868.tif
  • Men work ar a mine in a muddy pit and ruined landscape trying to repair broken equipment in Indonesia.
    Gold_20060421_01822.tif
  • A man fixes mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01818.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit where waste from the gold mining operation is collected. Amalgam ponds have high readings of mercury, yet workers bath and brush their teeth in the water.
    Gold_20060421_01814.tif
  • A man fixes mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01781.tif
  • A wild horse's mane flies forward as the stallion stands after rolling to take a dirt bath on a foggy morning. The more dominant horses will have a favourite rolling spot and will be the last to roll in it. This means that their scent is the strongest and therefore their rank is higher within the herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222826.jpg
  • Drivers wait for their turn to compete on a mud bog race with trucks and ATV's on Prince of Wales Island.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075114.jpg
  • Dirt flies up as horses gallop down the track in front of the twin spires of Churchill Downs. Horses are competing for a million dollar purse and a place in history.  First held in 1875, the Kentucky Derby is one of THE most famous two minutes in thoroughbred racing.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7017_720960.TIF
  • A farmer leaves muddy footprints in a taro patch.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_964828.jpg
  • A Kara woman on the mud-caked shoreline of the Omo River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306556.TIF
  • A writer is carried to the Omo River's muddy shore.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1306501.JPG
  • A salmon carcass in the water with reflections.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260972.JPG
  • The mud speckled face of a miner pops up while he is repairing a sluice box in a muddy pit of a gold mining operation.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223000.JPG
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River in Ghana. Miners worked in the tailings left by large industrial mines until run out by the military so they moved to riverbanks and work in a ruined landscape.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222968.TIF
  • A man fixes mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222961.TIF
  • Haul trucks carry rock waste at Batu Hijau, an open pit copper and gold mine. The second largest mine in Indonesia has a tropical monsoonal climate with high rainfall, and an extended arid season with almost no rainfall. Other environmental considerations include significant seismic activity, with the associated risk of tsunamis, and acid rock drainage, not to mention the existence on site of an endangered species, the yellow-crested cockatoo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222957.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River. Artisanal miners work on the tailing piles around big industrial mines leaving a ruined landscape.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198352.TIF
  • A young teenager stands on a submerged log to help miners sluice for gold in mine tailings at an improvised mine in Ghana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198337.TIF
  • Vendors carry goods and wares on bicycles through muddy Congo roads.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_1001270.JPG
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo. Quarantesept and Cinqante are gold mining towns near Ituri forest reserve in DR Congo. Hundreds of people from Congo and Uganda come to work at the mines.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976478.TIF
  • The road to Beni is nearly impassable during the wet season with slippery, silted mud.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976466.TIF
  • Pygmies daub each other with clay to decorate their faces and beautify their bodies.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976422.TIF
  • A policeman locking a road gate during a heavy rain storm.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763276.JPG
  • Men standing around a truck while women wade in a flooded roadway.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763269.TIF
  • A truck stuck up to its axles in mud on a flooded road.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763244.JPG
  • A roadside conversation and view through a mud-spattered windshield.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763242.JPG
  • Two men working to extricate their vehicle from deep mud.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763212.JPG
  • Unloading a boat from a trailer to cross a flooded road.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763198.JPG
  • Local people try to extract their truck stuck in the monsoon mud.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_761676.TIF
  • A refugee camp outside the gates of Harappa.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_1071266.JPG
  • Flat River Grand Prix Motocross Race, St. Joe State Park, Ozark Mountains, Miss ouri.  Joe Little gets stuck in lead tailings muck and gets half of his body co vered trying to dig himself out.
    RANDY OLSON_06168_501252.JPG
  • A young Aborigine girl hunting for mud crabs among mangrove trees.
    RANDY OLSON_04319_972121.TIF
  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River outside of Prestea, Ghana, Africa.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_02104.tif
  • A worker in protective garb and mask shovels dredged soil contaminated with cad mium to be processed before it is trucked away. A battery plant for years had d ischarged cadmium waste into the river. The area has been designated as a Super fund cleanup site.
    MELISSA FARLOW_06189_503160.jpg
  • Bald cypress tree reflections dance in Billy's Lake which also is the beginning of the Suwannee River in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Bald cypresses are long-lived and slow-growing native trees to the south adapting to wet, dry or swampy soil. Their heartwood is resistant to decay.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470840-3.JPG
  • An animal activist watches a young mustang foal roll in the dirt. They were out for a walk when the young foal stopped and dropped. <br />
Horses roll for pleasure and to clean their coats with sand and soil.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222822.jpg
  • Tongass National Forest is the largest remaining “temperate rainforest” in the world. Islands above Sitka Sound's steep, rugged mountainsides are often cloaked in fog because it receives up to 200 inches of rain a year. The land contains slowly draining granite soil with reflective muskeg bogs as well as limestone karst.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075038.TIF
  • Dairy cows stand in water holes to drink in the Suwannee basin in Florida. Concentrated dairy cow operations contribute high nitrate into the aquifer that has karst soil and nearby clear water springs. Waste from a total of 44,000 head of cattle helped ruin a thriving oyster industry in the town of Suwannee, downstream situated on the Gulf of Mexico.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470855.JPG
  • Bald cypress trees are reflected in Billy's Lake, also is the beginning of the Suwannee River in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Bald cypresses are long-lived and slow-growing native trees to the south adapting to wet, dry or swampy soil. Their heartwood is resistant to decay.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470840-1.JPG
  • A young girl carries a heavy load as she cuts and plants asparagus shoots and buries them with sand in an agricultural area south of Lima. The plants are deeply covered with soil and remain white from lack of sun light, which some find a gourmet delicacy.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187496-2.JPG
  • Mysterious Nazca lines form strange two-footed animal figures in the desert of Peru. Many creatures as well as geometric shapes run for miles and are best seen from the air. They were made by exposing lighter colored soil when sun-baked stones were moved and piled up. Anthropologists believe the Nazca culture that created them began around 100 B.C. and flourished from A.D. 1 to 700
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187625.jpg
  • Robert Cowart wipes sweat away after felling a pine on White Oak Plantation. Pine forests are common in the southeastern Coastal Plain and Florida. Many forests are managed for timber production as pulp used for paper products can come from a wide variety of tree species including conifers. <br />
<br />
The vast majority of Florida’s over 17 million acres of forested land are comprised of pines or a combination of pines and hardwoods. Pine flatwoods are typically found on poorly drained, sandy soils intermediate in moisture content between wetter bottomlands and drier uplands. Overstory of these woodlands consists mainly of longleaf, slash, and loblolly pines, although pond pine and shortleaf pine do occur. The shrub layer of flatwoods forests often includes blackberry, dwarf huckleberry, fetterbush, gallberry, saw palmetto, and wax myrtle.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470848.JPG
  • Hydroseed grass is sprayed on steep contours of a reclaimed mountaintop removal mine site in an effort to control erosion. Reclamation requires mining companies to return the land to it's original contours and plant but little grows on these rocky soils and the operation is often repeated.  Spray-on grass replaces more than 60 tree species that ruled some of the world’s most diverse temperate forests.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023732.jpg