Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area

Search Results

Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)
Next
305 images found

Loading ()...

  • Islands surrounded by icy waters are seen from the air near Glacier Bay National Park. The wilderness contains rugged mountains, glaciers, rainforest and wild coastlines with sheltered fjords in Southeast Alaska.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075100.TIF
  • A conservation group hikes through wilderness and old growth crossing creeks and rough terrain in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075115.TIF
  • Conservationists hike through a 600-year old uncut old growth forest of tall trees. It can take a 1000 years for spruce, hemlock and Sitka cedar to grow and tower over a lush forest floor.<br />
Tongass National Forest in Alaska's Southeast  is the world's largest remaining intact coastal temperate rain forest. Nearly 17 million acres provides habitat for the largest population of Bald Eagles in the world.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075041.jpg
  • Shredded tree trunks stand on the edge of a clear cut forest near Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island. This is the waste that is left behind that small mills sort through and find usable lumber. As one mill owner said of this opportunity, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073539.TIF
  • Forest of uncut old growth spruce, hemlock and cedar trees.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114660.jpg
  • Clear cut trees grow together letting no light in the forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114603.jpg
  • Fog-draped forest wilderness and rugged mountains are typical in Southeast Alaska where the 17 million acre Tongass National Forest receives an average of 200 inches of precipitation a year.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075040.jpg
  • Fog shrouds steep cliffs on the forested hillsides of Mount Juneau in the Tongass National Forest. Sitka Spruce and Hemlock thrive in the wet environment that receives over 200 inches of rain a year.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075070.TIF
  • Fog lifts over forested islands and muskeg terrain above Sitka Sound. Tongass National Forest is 17 million acres, the largest temperate rainforest in the world.
    MM7258_20050820_07655.tif
  • 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
  • Wilderness islands off Prince of Wales Island at the Dixon Entrance of the Inside Passage seen in an aerial view.<br />
Tongass National Forest covers 16.7 million acres stretching over mountains, bays, glaciers, 1,000 islands, 18,000 miles of coastline, and almost all of mainland Southeast Alaska. Approximately 94% of Southeast Alaska is federally managed lands, and of that, 60% is set aside as Congressionally-designated Wilderness, National Parks, and National Monuments.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075088.jpg
  • LeConte Glacier issues from the air in the Stikine Icefield. It is one of the few remnants of the once-vast ice sheets that covered much of North America during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, the epoch lasting from 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago.<br />
<br />
 LeConte covers 2,900 square miles along the crest of the Coastal Mountains that separate Canada and the U.S., extending 120 miles from the Whiting River to the Stikine River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.<br />
There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and LeConte is the southernmost active tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere. Since first charted in 1887, it has retreated almost 2.5 miles but is considered stable.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075058.jpg
  • Logging roads zig zag making a pattern seen from the air after a recent clear cut forest creating a barren slope on Admiralty Island. Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass National Forest is composed of high-volume old growth. The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075047.jpg
  • Taku Glacier is the deepest and thickest alpine temperate glacier in the world. Seen from the air, it originates in the Juneau Icefield of the Tongass National Forest, and converges with the Taku River.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075111.jpg
  • Estuaries along the Lynn Canal are shrouded in morning fog while Lion's Head in the Tongass National Forest rises above as seen in an aerial view.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075073.TIF
  • LeConte Glacier is marked by granite peak formations such as Devis Thumb in the background in the Stikine Icefield seen in an aerial view.<br />
It is one of the few remnants of the once-vast ice sheets that covered much of North America during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, the epoch lasting from 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago. LeConte covers 2,900 square miles along the crest of the Coastal Mountains that separate Canada and the U.S., extending 120 miles from the Whiting River to the Stikine River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.<br />
There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and LeConte is the southernmost active tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075093.jpg
  • Aerial view of a cruise ship that docks at Ketchikan's harbor bringing a city full of tourists for shopping and sightseeing. The once logging town is dependent on the growing tourism industry. Nearly a million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska, sometimes doubling a town’s population on a summer day. <br />
The ships travel the Inside Passage, a network of waterways between islands along the coast of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. <br />
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. The Misty Fjords National Monument is one of the area’s major attractions.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075021.TIF
  • Timber is loaded for export onto a ship in protected waters on South Prince of Wales island. The forest industry depends on overseas sales of wood that is shipped mostly to Asia. The aerial scene is backlight in morning light.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075022.jpg
  • Shredded remains of trees on the edge of a forest that was clear cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass rainforest is composed of considerable stands of old-growth forest, with some trees standing more than 800 years old. <br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth.<br />
The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075108.jpg
  • Shredded remains of trees are the spoils left after a forest is clear cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass rainforest is composed of considerable stands of old-growth forest, with some trees more than 800 years old.<br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth.<br />
The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075083.jpg
  • Researchers who study brown bears navigate by boat through driving rain on the Unuk River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. This is the "dry season," and the region receives more than two hundred inches of rain each year.<br />
Brown bears or grizzlies are prevalent in the Tongass, so there is interest in study of their behavior and range. A decline in the lower 48 states has heightened management concern and an increased interest in habitat-related studies in Alaska. <br />
Results show brown bears avoid clearcuts and are more often found in riparian old growth, wetland, and alpine/subalpine habitat because of more nutritious foraging and better cover.<br />
<br />
The Unuk Study Area is part of Misty Fiords National Monument and classified as wilderness. Because of this, no helicopters are allowed, making primary access by boat since no roads exist. Located 100 km northeast of Ketchikan, the Unuk River, which means “Dream River” in the native Tlingit language, flows from the Canadian border to salt water. Although much of the main river channel is too deep and glacial for bears to fish, the river contains several clear tributaries with spawning salmon.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073533.TIF
  • A logging truck hauls timber from the Tongass National Forest to a sawmill where it will be processed and loaded on ships for export.<br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass National Forest is composed of high-volume old growth.  The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075024.jpg
  • Scientists climb on gigantic stumps of trees cut years ago while they hiking through surveying what is left of the old growth forest. Tongass National Forest encompasses 16.8 million acres and is the largest temperate rain forest on the planet. The 600 to 800 year old trees lin these forests forests contribute irreplaceable biological diversity.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073538.jpg
  • Melissa Farlow, a photographer on assignment in the Tongass National Forest poses with a tranquilized brown bear (Ursus arctos) that was darted and studied by wildlife researchers.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075116.jpg
  • A timber faller works alone with a chain saw in the forest cutting trees one by one at Winter Harbor on Prince of Wales Island. It is dangerous work.<br />
 The forests in the Tongass can take a 1000 years for spruce, hemlock and Sitka cedar to grow and tower over a lush forest floor in Alaska's Southeast.<br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth. The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075148.jpg
  • Trees in the Tongass National Forest, which is a temperate rainforest, grow on a moss-covered rocky shore near Sitka Sound.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075039.jpg
  • A kayaker carries his boat to higher ground to explore the wilderness in Southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest. Tidal changes are extreme along islands in the Inside Passage.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075153.jpg
  • 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.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075063.TIF
  • Friends play on a rope swing on an island in the Tongass National Forest where they were camping with their families.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075122.jpg
  • Early morning fog lifts revealing snowy Mount Juneau above the Tongass National Forest seen from Douglass Island across Gastineau Channel.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075099.jpg
  • Families hike through the wilderness following the few rough trails on Moser Island in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075160.jpg
  • The axe throwing contest at the annual logging show is one of the many competitions among locals to show off their skills on Prince of Wales Island. Red bulls eye targets are painted on cuts from trees in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075142.jpg
  • Snow-covered Bullard Mountain east of the Mendenhall Glacier creates a peaceful winter scene in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1086958.jpg
  • A spotted fawn tries to hide in tall grasses along Pack Creek on Admiralty Island in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075102.TIF
  • A young black bear (Ursus americanus) feeds on salmon in Anan Creek. The site is accessible for tourists to view wildlife in Alaska's Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075090.jpg
  • 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
  • Climbers leave their base camp to trek on the ice field of Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is one of many that connect to the vast Juneau Ice Field, a 1,500 square mile remnant of the last ice age, cradled high in the coastal mountain’s lofty peaks in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075016.jpg
  • Hiking and exploring the wilderness in Tongass National Forest, conservationists playfully teach their daughters to whistle using blades of grass.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075121.jpg
  • A black bear (Ursus americanus) feeds on abundant pink salmon in Anan Creek adding needed protein to fatten up on a diet that otherwise consists of cranberries, currants, blueberries, devil's club ants and grubs.  Anan Wildlife Observatory in Tongass National Forest is restricted by permit to keep the bears families that feed there wild.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075091.TIF
  • 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.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075062.TIF
  • Cody, a timber faller, works alone in the woods at Winter Harbor on Prince of Wales Island. It’s dangerous work, and fallers listen for others’ saws between cuts to make sure a buddy isn't injured. Following his father’s example, Cody wanted to be a timber faller since he was a kid. He got his first chain saw when he was nine and has been working since he turned seventeen.<br />
  He leaves home at 5 a.m. driving an hour to the work site. Carrying a heavy chain saw, he walks with the grace of a ballet dancer on a maze of fallen trees. His shoes, called corks that cost as much as $750, have metal-spiked soles so he is stable on fallen trees.<br />
  Loggers and fishermen rank in the top two spots for most dangerous jobs. Both are common lines of work for people in the Alaskan outdoors. Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking fatal occupational injuries in 1980, there were 4,547 fatal work injuries in 2010, and fatality rates of some occupations remain alarmingly high.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075117.TIF
  • Old growth forest hemlock and spruce trees stand tall beside a 100-foot waterfall on Chichagof Island. It can take a 1000 years for spruce, hemlock and Sitka cedar to grow and tower over a lush forest floor.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075069.jpg
  • Sunrise gives a warm glow to morning mist rising over Control Lake framed by the forest on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075087.jpg
  • 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.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075007.TIF
  • Float planes dock to board and carry tourists, then take off over cruise ships to sightsee glaciers, whales and bears. The Misty Fjords National Monument is one of the area’s major attractions.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075042.TIF
  • Aerial view of timber that is loaded for export onto a ship on South Prince of Wales. The forest industry depends on overseas sales and load floating logs from a nearby mill in a protected bay.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075089.TIF
  • Stacked and bundled, red cedar shakes contribute to the forest industry with manufactured wood products milled to cover roofs and walls of buildings.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075075.jpg
  • Fog drifts over a secluded estuary and the Thorne River on Prince of Wales Island seen from the air in Southeast Alaska. 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 />
Fjords, steep-sided mountains, and dense forests characterize the island. Extensive tracts of limestone include karst features.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075048.TIF
  • A camper juggles outside a cabin to pass time before a trek into the wilderness to explore and survey old growth forests in Alaska's Southeast.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075151.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 that is seen in this aerial.<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.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075008.TIF
  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy ridges and peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
The aerial view of the Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073537.TIF
  • Harsh winds blow snow across the craggy peaks of the South Chilkat Mountains, illuminating intense, orange colors of a winter sunset.<br />
Photographed from the air, the Coastal Range is directly across the Lynn Canal and the Juneau Icefield in southeast Alaska.
    MM7258_20060310_15159.tif
  • South Chilkat Mountain peaks are kissed with warm light at sunset above the Icy Strait. High winds sweep ice and snow from ridge tops creating a landscape that is severe, yet appears serene. Winds were so strong that it took several flights to find calm air to make this image.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075066.jpg
  • 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 in Ketchikan - and as many as 500 a year - bringing tourists on the Inside Passage. Viewed from the air when landing a float plane, the ship is docked near sunset.<br />
<br />
Tourism is Southeast Alaska’s fastest growing industry. Travelers can shop for Native art and souvenirs or diamonds in one of many jewelry stores along what was a former logging town.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075023.TIF
  • Taku Glacier is a tidewater glacier and the largest in the Juneau Icefield. Long an anomaly among  glaciers, it was advancing but in recent years has started to succumb to climate change and retreat. The blue textured ribbon of ice is mixed with sediment with the terminus of the Taku River.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075110.TIF
  • Icy winds blow snow clouds blow over the jagged ridges of the South Chilkat Mountains that rise above Southeast Alaska's coast. Weather makes aerial photography a challenge as strong gusting winds force small float planes to land.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075061.jpg
  • Devils Thumb, captured from the air, stands distinctively higher than other granite peaks in Stikine Icefield. <br />
Cloaked with hanging glaciers, it's name is Taalkhunaxhkʼu Shaa in Native Tlingit language, which means "the mountain that never flooded." <br />
The sheer cliffs covered in ice are often unstable creating avalanches making it a technical challenge for advanced mountain climbers.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075094.jpg
  • Tracy Arm Fjord is formed by a retreating glacier melting between granite walls. Sawyer Glacier calves into the fjord in the heart of the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness seen from the air in Southeast Alaska.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075046.jpg
  • Ice-covered peaks of South Chilkat Mountains appear to have frosting on their tops from melting snow. Aerial photos is made when winds lay near sunset.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075067.TIF
  • A waterfall flows from a melting glacier in the Stikine icefields near Devils Thumb. The Stikine Icecap, seen from the air, straddles Alaska and British Columbia and is known to climbers for its technically demanding and dangerous peaks and spires of granite.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075027.jpg
  • Estuaries shrouded in morning fog are revealed in the intertidal region of the Southeast Alaskan coast along the Lynn Canal in Alaska's Southeastas seen in an aerial view.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075072.TIF
  • Warm light of the setting sun highlights jagged peaks of granite cloaked by hanging glaciers in the Stikine Icefield seen from the air. The icecap straddles the US-Canadian border between the Stikine River and Frederick Sound in Alaska's Southeast.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075028.jpg
  • Taku Glacier in the Juneau Icefield is the deepest and thickest alpine, temperate, tidewater glacier in the world. From the air Taku Glacier appears to be a textured ribbon that winds out of the southeast corner of the icefield as an outlet glacier with its terminus in the Taku River.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075112.TIF
  • More than 5,000 miles of roads are carved into the remote landscape to clear-cut large swatches of forests on Chichagof Island. An aerial picture after a winter snow reveals the patchwork on lower reaches of the mountains where logging traditionally occurs. <br />
Taxpayer money has subsidized the timber industry since 1980. Tongass National Forest timber management has cost U.S. taxpayers roughly one billion dollars, making it the largest money loser in the entire national forest system.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073536.TIF
  • 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.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075044.TIF
  • Tourists are wed on Mendenhall Glacier in the Tongass National Forest. He marks the spot of their ceremony with a GPS while behind them a guide leads hikers up an icy trail. She blissfully basks in the sun as they wait for their helicopter return back to Juneau.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1077902.TIF
  • Father and daugter kayak on still water near Moser Island which separates North and South Arms Hoonah Sound on Chichagof Island in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075162.jpg
  • Conservationists launch a boat to explore wilderness on a research trip in a remote part of the Tongass National Forest. Fog, rain and cloudy weather are characteristic of the region that receives over 200 inches of rain a year.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075152.jpg
  • Vine maples on forest floor in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114701.jpg
  • Forest floor of old growth trees in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114657.jpg
  • Ferns carpet the forest floor in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114602.jpg
  • Admiralty Island in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114730.jpg
  • Clear cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114729.jpg
  • Islands near Winter Harbor in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114719.jpg
  • Tracy Arms, a retreating glacier in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114663.jpg
  • Uprooted tree with ferns growing in the Tongass National Forest
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114659.jpg
  • Black bear climbing tree in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114637.jpg
  • Black bear in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114627.jpg
  • Queen Annes lace in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114704.jpg
  • Ferns in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114703.jpg
  • Moss covered trees in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114699.jpg
  • Ferns in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114698.jpg
  • Tributary of the Unuk River in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114669.jpg
  • Morning fog in Sitka Sound in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114658.jpg
  • Black bear on tree branch in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114638.jpg
  • Black bear on tree branch in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114636.jpg
  • Black bear feeding on salmon in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114632.jpg
  • Juvenile black bear in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114630.jpg
  • Juvenile black bear feeds on salmon in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114628.jpg
  • Logging truck hauls timber in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114626.jpg
  • Logging and road building in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114625.jpg
  • A logging camp on a protected cove in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114612.jpg
  • Fresh clear cuts on Prince of Wales island in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114607.jpg
  • Black bear feeds on salmon in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114634.jpg
  • Black bear feeding on salmon in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114631.jpg
  • Logging in the Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114624.jpg
  • A couple watches competitors and wait for their turn to use the "misery whip, " a two person cutting saw that typically has a 4-12 foot blade and was used to fell tall Sitka spruce, hemlock and cedar trees in the region's logging heyday. Competition is fierce as loggers are timed to see who can cut through a log the fastest. The logging show on Prince of Wales island is not a tourist event, but a chance for locals to come together and show off their skills.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073530.TIF
  • Salmon dries on racks before being smoked with alder at a Native Alaskan fish camp near Sitka. The catch will help supplement traditional food supplies through winter months.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1073535.TIF
  • A juvenile grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) frolics  while his mother fishes for salmon at Pack Creek on Admiralty Island. The creek runs through an open intertidal meadow before spilling into the ocean. It has the highest concentration of brown bears in Southeast Alaska. Young brown bears begin life on their own when they are approximately two years old.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075010.TIF
  • Heads together, two girl friends beach-comb near the water's edge investigating sea life at low tide in Southeast Alaska. <br />
Scientists have counted at least 170 species of macroscopic invertebrates in the rich marine intertidal zones.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075009.jpg
Next