Charred wood litters a partially cleared area in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest along Washington state's Cascade Range. The fires are set deliberately to clear the land of debris after logging and to facilitate new growth. Gifford Pinchot is home to Mount St. Helens, and was ground zero of the battle between logging interests and those seeking to protect the northern spotted owl.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Old Growth Forests," September 1990, National Geographic magazine)