Welcome! For decades I've had the pleasure of enjoying some of our nation's very special places--national forests, national parks, wildlife refuges, BLM lands, and other public areas also set aside by states and communities. These communal lands not only nurture us, they also benefit the animals, birds and plants that flourish when very basic protections are administered.
Most of these images were captured on public lands. The Africa pictures were taken in Kruger Park, a crown jewel in the northern crest of South Africa. Some of the following galleries are frequently, though not exclusively, populated with pictures from Alaska because I worked and recreated in our nation's largest state for a half century. The Alaska images range from the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that abuts the Arctic Ocean and places in between. Now that my wife and I live in Oregon, we're similarly enjoying public lands in the lower 48 that stretch from Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware and Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland to Yosemite and Death Valley National Parks in California.
Miscellaneous 'people' and 'flag' photos also are tossed into this mix but I hope it's the photos celebrating our communal lands that resonate with you. There are loud, influential political voices that suggest we "open" more public lands to primarily serve the private economic interests of very few. That's an odd argument since these public spaces now are open and, by-the-way, they already sustain a huge economic engine fueled by the tourism and ancillary economic sectors that would be diminished by allowing extractive industries access to our public lands. Any elected official who suggests that a few rather than the many should have a prioritized right on these lands are neither advocates for the majority of us nor for the remarkable range of plants and animals that thrive on our communal lands.