Most of the images are of destructive changes, many of them difficult to see because they happen gradually and we become used to them, like seeing vast tree plantations and mistaking it for a "forest" or driving through western lands degraded by a century of livestock grazing thinking it's "natural". Wilderness is particular to a place, but the problems are global: Alaskan glaciers melt because of cars in California and coal-fired plants in Ohio. As one bumper sticker put it, "At least the war on the environment is going well."

Please go to the Friends of Douglas Fir National Monument page to find out about an initiative to preserve and honor Pacific Northwest forests, or go to Old-growth Douglas-fir Forests to see images of these ancient forests.