Thomas Hyde

Snow falls in the fading twilight over Satsop Valley commercial timberlands.

Scenes from the Satsop Valley in Washington State where I lived for 20 years. Nearly 95 percent of the land is in commercial timber production.

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A logging road on timber company land of Mason County, Washington. These are some of the most productive industrial timberlands fed by as much as 10 feet of rain per year. Trees are planted in monoculture stands, fertilized, sprayed with herbicides.
Looking out across a clearcut in the Satsop River Valley less than a mile from my home.
A small rural farm in the sparsely populated Satsop Valley of Washington State. Most of the land is owned by timber companies while some parcels, such as this one, are zoned as "inholdings" and surrounded by commercial timberlands.
The back road to my home winds through commercial timberlands, and mostly clearcuts. In 2000, the federal government granted this landholder, Green Diamond, a multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan that protects 51 fish and wildlife species.
A small grove of trees are left as future wildlife habitat in an otherwise desolated landscape on private timberlands. This land is supposedly in compliance with the national Sustainable Forestry Initiative standard.
A man fishes for salmon. Once abundant runs of salmon continue to decline in the Northwest.
A teenager jumps into frigid clear waters of a stream flowing from the southern Olympic Mountains.
A winter's day in the Satsop Valley of Washington State. A young monoculture stand of planted trees on the right contrasts with the older stand, ready for harvest, on the left.
A log sorting yard lights a stand of trees in Mason County, Washington. A few months later, the trees were cut down for lumber.
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