Endless flowers, Carrizo Plain NM, CA, USA
Earlier this spring, Claudia and I, along with our friend Robert, spent five days photographing flowers in Carrizo Plain National Monument. We marveled at the vast fields of flowers. As I wrote in an earlier post, we found acres and acres of tidytips, phacelia, hillside daisies, fiddlenecks, and goldfields, growing together in dense mats, uninterrupted by shrubs or even a blade of grass. We had to tiptoe carefully to avoid crushing flowers at every step.
We saw pronghorn antelope and tule elk, both reintroduced to this area. We saw three endangered San Joaquin kit foxes. It truly seemed as if we’d stepped back in time, and were seeing what California looked like 200 years ago.
As many of you know, the Department of the Interior is “reconsidering” the status of 22 national monuments, along with 5 marine national monuments. Carrizo Plain is one of the national monuments on this list, along with Grand Staircase – Escalante, the new Bears Ears National Monument, and many more.
This isn’t a political blog, but this is an issue that directly affects landscape photographers. Whatever your views are about these proposed changes, I urge you to express those views during the comment period, which has already begun. You can do so here:
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOI-2017-0002-0001
The comment period for Bears Ears ends on May 26th, so there’s not much time left. The comment period for the other monuments ends June 10th.
It’s one thing to consider issues like this in an abstract sense – the value of preserving natural places vs. the value of oil extraction, for example. But it’s another to actually see these places, and what’s at stake. With that in mind, photographer Kevin Ebi has put together a free ebook called Land Almost Lost, with photographs of all 22 monuments under review, featuring work from ten photographers (including some of my images of the Carrizo Plain). It’s free, and I encourage you to download it, and share it with anyone who might be interested. Here’s a link to the free ebook:
— Michael Frye
Wildflowers in the Temblor Range, with desert candles, blazing stars, tansy phacelia, and hillside daisies, Carrizo Plain NM, CA, USA
Buckskin Gulch, Vermillion Cliffs NM, UT, USA
Steep Creek, Grand Staircase – Escalante NM, UT, USA
Cottonwood tree in a sandstone pothole, Grand Staircase – Escalante NM, UT, USA
Related Posts: The Floweriest Piece of the World; The Painted Hills
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
Thanks for the link to post comments Michael. I was looking for where I could make my small voice heard.
You’re welcome Michael, and thanks in advance for making your voice heard. And even though this is not, technically, an issue for Congress, it wouldn’t hurt to let your congressperson and senators know how you feel.
Thanks for posting this blog. I was in Carrizo about a week after you & Robert. I missed some of the prime bloom but as blown away by what was there in good condition. I already posted on the comment site. I ran an informal survey of a 100 of the 1700+ comments that were there before me. I found in my unscientific survey that it was 93% in favor of leaving the monuments as they are. I also saw that Secretary Zinke toured Bear’s Ears Monument area giving hours to the anti-monument crowd and minutes to the pro-monument groups. The tour included a tour of the great coal seam the anti-monument crowd plan to exploit if the protection is lifted. It’s not about local control it’s about mining & exploitation. I wish I had pictures of the area around Taft & its oil fields crowded with pumps over bare ground to show in comparison to the Carrizo Plain pictures from this year. I urge everyone to comment & raise their voices in opposition to destroying the environment in favor of resource exploitation.
Bruce, thanks for adding to the discussion. It looks like the administration has already made up its mind about Bears Ears, but perhaps there’s some hope for other monuments. The more people make their voices heard, the better the odds that someone might listen.
Thanks for sharing the link Michael. Of most critical importance. I have hiked through Buckskin Bulch and the Paria Wilderness and was one of the most amazing place I have ever experienced.
You’re welcome John. I need to go back to Buckskin Gulch – that photo is from 2003. So many great places to explore in that region.
I live in Connecticut and believe that we Americans have a duty to protect our national monuments from destruction and degradation, i.e., they should not be opened by the U.S. Department of the Interior or other governmental agencies to drilling, mining or other harmful development. In particular, I ask that Northeast Canyons and Seamounts in Connecticut be protected. Thank you.