Connected to the Wild

Orca breaching — Ray Pfortner
Artist Statement: You must realize I had never seen an orca before these encounters in 1994. I am from New York City. I was in awe. I wanted to show their grandeur, and that this is their Salish Sea, and we share it with them. Sadly today, 25 years after these photographs were taken, the resident orca visits to Tacoma have lessened noticeably as the salmon runs have diminished. Ruffles, the star of these 2 photographs, has long since mysteriously vanished from the J-Pod along with many others in all 3 of the critically endangered family pods in the Salish Sea. These photographs were used to lobby the Washington legislature, and ultimately to help stop a huge gravel mine on Maury Island, which would have loaded the Sound with sediment, gravel barges and noise. The gravel pit is now a park, a huge conservation victory advanced by photography and many citizen environmentalists. I cannot imagine the Salish Sea without orcas. Can you?

Wolvrine in snow — Steven Gnam
Artist Statement: I take photographs to capture the essence of the natural world and explore how we are entwined within it. Ultimately, I hope that a photograph can help viewers to open their hearts and minds to the beauty of the natural world--to celebrate its glory and realize that we need to care for it. Wolverines show us how to live in the most rugged environments during the leanest times. They are efficient in all they do. Their bodies and their ethos support long-distance travel in the mountains, during both summer in winter. They also show us that sometimes the strongest, most tenacious animals are also the most vulnerable. Since wolverines occur naturally at low densities and occupy a niche of the ecosystem that is not as abundant with food, they must cover ground. Lots of it. They also require large tracts of mountains linked to other mountain ranges to facilitate the flow and mixing of genes. Finally, they need snow. They use snow to cache food, but more importantly to create dens to have their snow-white kits. Wolverines, like many carnivores in North America, are a choice. Humans decide to make room for them.

Orca at sunrise — Ray Pfortner
Artist Statement: You must realize I had never seen an orca before these encounters in 1994. I am from New York City. I was in awe. I wanted to show their grandeur, and that this is their Salish Sea, and we share it with them. Sadly today, 25 years after these photographs were taken, the resident orca visits to Tacoma have lessened noticeably as the salmon runs have diminished. Ruffles, the star of these 2 photographs, has long since mysteriously vanished from the J-Pod along with many others in all 3 of the critically endangered family pods in the Salish Sea. These photographs were used to lobby the Washington legislature, and ultimately to help stop a huge gravel mine on Maury Island, which would have loaded the Sound with sediment, gravel barges and noise. The gravel pit is now a park, a huge conservation victory advanced by photography and many citizen environmentalists. I cannot imagine the Salish Sea without orcas. Can you?

Monarch butterflies on plant — Beth Waterbury
Artist Statement: Monarch butterflies epitomize the challenges of conserving highly mobile species. Their life cycle is a complex marvel involving a lengthy migration completed “relay-style” by several generations in a single year. Milkweeds are the sole food source for their caterpillars, and thereby, the essential links of the chain that connect monarch breeding populations across North America. Without milkweeds, there can be no monarchs. “High Summer Monarchs” depicts the obligate link between monarchs and milkweeds. These two bright, fresh adults only recently emerged from their pupae, clambered up the milkweed stalk, and took their first sips of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) nectar before taking flight. This image not only showcases the startling beauty of this butterfly, but suggests an underlying power and resilience that is as hopeful as it is awe-inspiring.

A black colored wolf crossing a lead of water along coast of a small island in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, Canada. Black wolves can be found around the northern hemisphere and genetic research has demonstrated that the genes for this coat color appeared in wolves as a result of interbreeding with domestic dogs. — David Moskowitz
Artist Statement: Wolves capture the imagination in a way few other animals do for humans. Watching this black wolf cross a lead of ocean water on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia at first light felt like a glimpse into a world that few modern people get to witness in the 21st century.

Canada lynx populations in the western United States are threatend by climate change. — David Moskowitz
Artist Statement: Canada lynx, like most wild cats, are curious by nature. This one carefully inspected a camera trap set in the Mission Mountains of northwestern Montana, perhaps studying what humans are up to in his backyard, a point of much interest for his kind, given the power we have over the future of their home. Totally adapted for life in a forest landscape with long winters, climate change and fragmentation of their habitat are both significant threats to the survival of Canada lynx along the southern edge of their home range.

Wolverine in snow at night — David Moskowitz
Artist Statement: There are likely as few as 20 wolverines in the entire North Cascades ecosystem where they spend most of their time in steep, high elevation, and remote terrain. An individual’s home range can be several hundred square miles making their long term survival totally dependent on connected wild landscapes. A carefully placed camera trap helped us get a glimpse into the life of one of these creatures on a snowy winter night in northern Washington State.

American Pika on stone in meadow — James Beissel
Artist Statement: Pika live amongst the talus in the alpine environment and, because they do not hibernate, must busily gather “hay” to store for the winter. Watching them gather hay and defend their hay piles is endlessly entertaining. Their round bodies help keep them from freezing but also make them susceptible to overheating. Rising temperatures can isolate colonies to high altitude “islands in the sky”, cut off from one another by warm, inhospitable valleys.

Brown bear — Jason Ching
Artist Statement: The watersheds of Bristol Bay, Alaska are an example of what healthy ecosystems once were in the Pacific Northwest. In Southwest Alaska brown bears along with hundreds of other species of plants and animals can still count on healthy returns of nutrient driving sockeye salmon every summer. It is one place where science, research, management, and conservation efforts have kept the area as pristine as it has been for thousands of years. However, a proposed copper and gold mine currently threatens this perfectly running ecosystem. My work in Bristol Bay, Alaska is centered around areas under direct threat of the proposed Pebble Mine and I hope my imagery of the area sheds light on this last, thriving, wild salmon ecosystem we have on earth.

Coho salmon — Jason Ching
Artist Statement: Salmon are an icon to the Pacific Northwest playing large roles economically, culturally, and are the backbone of many of our ecosystems. Despite their importance, the threats to salmon are countless and devastating along the Pacific Coast, ranging from habitat loss, migration corridors being cut off by dams and development, and global climate change having effects on their growth and condition.

Lost River Suckers — Jason Ching
Artist Statement: Every spring thousands of these Lost River suckers spawn in tributaries and springs surrounding Upper Klamath Lake in Southern Oregon. The tiny larva of these fish then drift downstream and begin to feed in the lake, but none of them grow longer than your pinky finger All of the offspring die before reaching a year old, meaning that there is effectively no recruitment to the population. Every year the adults just grow older and as more of them die each year without being replaced they are on a path to imminent extinction. While there are many obvious ways in which this watershed has been degraded, there's still no clear evidence as to what is killing juvenile suckers.

Redband Trout in water — Jason Ching
Artist Statement: Due to the porous geology of the east Cascades in Southern Oregon, snowmelt often travels subsurface and then re-merges far downslope in Upper Klamath Lake in the form of springs where many of these redband trout gather to spawn. Oregon's Upper Klamath Basin hosts some of the largest trout in the US and they spawn almost exclusively in spring-fed habitats and although critically important to these and other fish, many of the springs in Klamath Basin have been degraded or rendered inaccessible to these trout.

A wolf named Lorenzo — Annie Musselman
Artist Statement: I believe humans are very connected to wolves. We both live in families and rely on each other in so many similar ways. Humans and wolves share many emotions that is why so many of us have dogs because dogs descend from wolves. I spent 5 years at Wolf Haven documenting these incredible animals through a fence, I developed bonds with many of them. I sat or laid next to them for hours and days waiting for these special moments. Lorenzo, pictured here is a Mexican Gray Wolf, though they once numbered in the thousands, these wolves were wiped out in the U.S. by the mid-1970s, with just a handful existing in zoos. In 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, released 11 Mexican gray wolves back into the wild in Arizona. Although their numbers have grown slowly, they remain the most endangered subspecies of wolf in the world.

An endangered wild northern spotted owl perches in a tree in an old growth section of forest on Bureau of Land Management property near Roseburg, Ore., on Monday, July 12, 2010. The owl, its mate, and young are being monitored by federal biologists from the BLM. The population of the highly endangered northern spotted owls continues to decline due to habitat loss and other factors. According to Defenders of Wildlife there are fewer than 100 pairs of northern spotted owls in British Columbia, Canada, 1,200 pairs in Oregon, 560 pairs in northern California and 500 pairs in the state of Washington. (Credit Image: ¬© Robin Loznak/) — Robin Lozniak
Artist Statement: An endangered wild northern spotted owl perches in a tree in an old growth section of forest on Bureau of Land Management property near Roseburg, Ore. The owl, its mate, and young were being monitored by federal biologists from the BLM. The population of the highly endangered northern spotted owls continues to decline due to habitat loss and other factors. According to Defenders of Wildlife there are fewer than 100 pairs of northern spotted owls in British Columbia, Canada, 1,200 pairs in Oregon, 560 pairs in northern California and 500 pairs in the state of Washington. Documenting this important bellwether species is important and crucial to understanding our changing and fragile environment.

Taylor's Checkerspot Butterfly — Tristen Wuori
Artist Statement: The Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly is an endangered species. I took this photograph outside of the normal populations of Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterflies and have reported that to the Washington Fish and Wildlife. I hadn’t been looking for any particular subject to photograph, just enjoying nature with my camera. So, this is a great example of how art and science can help each other. I wouldn’t have been able to identify this endangered species without science, and without art, I wouldn’t have found and photographed this butterfly in a place which could potentially advance our knowledge of the state of this endangered species!

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Show Statement:

Monarch butterflies fly hundreds of miles from overwintering sites in California to breeding sites throughout the west. Wolverines travel through a territorial range up to 240 square miles. Southern resident orca range thousands of miles along the Pacific coast.

All of these animals, like many of our iconic western species, require large areas of habitat for their survival. Habitat connectivity, or linking fragmented habitat to restore ecosystems and provide space for a diverse range of animals and plants to survive, recover, and thrive, is essential for the long term survival of many species.

With the increasing threats to species posed by climate change, preserving quality habitat which allows animals to migrate between suitable areas is especially critical. Connected to the Wild is a photographic exhibition representing the diverse, threatened and endangered wildlife in the Northwest.

The species depicted in the show represent a sampling of the many animals which will benefit from the establishment of connected habitat. The show features the work of photographers from the western United States and Canada, artists who generously contributed their work in recognition of the importance of habitat connectivity for a diversity of species and the impact that visual art has in educating and inspiring people to take action to protect these species.

Wildlands Network and the Endangered Species Coalition co-organized Connected to the Wild to raise awareness about wildlife as an indelible part of the spirit and natural heritage of our region, and the need to conserve the diversity of species in the face of environmental threats. Our organizations are united in these efforts to reconnect, restore, and rewild the Pacific states.

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Artists

James Beissel

Wildlife photography is a way to explore the natural world and share that sense of wonder with others. Not everyone might get the chance to see these animals in the wild, but if you keep your eyes open on your next hike, you never know – you just might!

Jason Ching

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest instilled with an appreciation for our deep-green forests, cold streams, and all of our finned and legged creatures. I now work as both an environmental researcher studying wild salmon runs in Bristol Bay, Alaska and nature photographer up and down the Pacific Coast specializing in underwater, aerial, and camera-trap photography. I enjoy developing unique strategies to capture impactful images of wildlife, and to use those visual works to share research topics in environmental sciences, promote ideas of conservation, and inspire a sense of appreciation for our environment, wildlife, and resources.

Steven Gnam

I take photographs to capture the essence of the natural world and explore how we are entwined within it. Ultimately, I hope that a photograph can help viewers to open their hearts and minds to the beauty of the natural world–to celebrate its glory and realize that we need to care for it.

Robin Loznak

I am primarily a nature and editorial photographer based in rural western Oregon. I spent 20 years as a newspaper photojournalist in Montana and Oregon. Currently, I’m a contract photographer with the ZUMAPRESS wire service. My work has been featured worldwide in magazines, websites, and books. I’m known for my quirky and intimate wildlife and nature photography. Since 2015 I’ve been closely following a group of young Americans as they fight a landmark climate change lawsuit against the federal government. I was named the National Press Photographers Association Regional Photographer of the Year while working at a small newspaper in Kalispell, Montana. When not taking pictures, I raise hazelnuts on my family owned 500-acre ranch in Oregon. I hope my pictures bring an understanding and appreciation to animals and the environments they live in.

David Moskowitz

Wild places, wildlife, adventurous humans, and the intersection of nature and modern culture are the focus of David Moskowitz’s work as a photographer and conservationist. He blends his background as a wildlife biologist and outdoor educator with photography in projects that aim to educate, inspire and engage as diverse an audience as possible.

David’s goal, both in the field taking photos, and afterwards developing conservation stories, is to express his experience of natural world as he actually encounters it. He aims to bring wild animals and overlooked ecosystems out of the shadows and into the lives of people far and wide. David is based in the North Cascades of Washington State with the majority of his work currently focusing on western North America.

Annie Musselman

The work I produce documents the delicate union that exists between humans and animals. It’s not just the actual places where our lives often intersect, like a park or forest, but the spaces where our emotions meet. I hope to capture the palpable emotions in my photographs because I can’t help but contemplate how much we actually know about each other.

These photographs attempt to bring the viewer closer to the subject and in turn hopefully causes us to care more, and what we care about we want to protect. These photographs reveal not only the intricacies of the wolves’ beauty – the dirt on their fur, their sharp teeth, and their arresting eyes – but also the connections between the wolves themselves and between the wolves and I.

I hope the viewer can see the importance of wolves in our world and participate in legislation to protect them for they are at risk again in the United States.

Ray Pfortner

I love photography. I lose myself in making images, and have since my teens. I crave freezing moments, capturing situations for the primary purpose of sharing with others. I have always loved souvenirs and that is what my photographs are for me. I concentrate on photographing landscapes in pre-dawn and evening light. I love the challenge of photographing wildlife, and all the unpredictability, and the bit of luck, doing so entails. I love how rare encounters with wildlife can be, and how elusive the subject can be during these encounters.

I am a biologist and environmentalist, first by my love of nature, then by my education and my employment with the National Park Service and the USEPA. Advancing environmental conservation has always been a primary objective of my photography. I hope to show people the natural world they rarely see, and to raise awareness on what nature offers, and how we are one with nature, not separate from it.

Beth Waterbury

Beth Waterbury is a wildlife biologist who has lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest since 1985, and is currently based out of Salmon, Idaho and St. Ignatius, Montana. Her camera has been an essential tool to capture and record scientific observations of the diverse systems and species she studies. Early in her career she realized the power of her wildlife images to connect with people—to raise awareness, to instill wonder, to inspire protection of the natural world. As her career progressed, her passion and camera lens pivoted from game species such as mule deer, elk, and waterfowl to the many rare, understudied, and at-risk species whose stories needed telling.

Tristen Wuori

I am a biologist and an artist. I believe the intersection of science and art is vital and powerful. Art is a tool for understanding scientific concepts, and to make science personal. Through art, people can feel motivated to act on behalf of endangered species impacted by climate change. Art brings people face-to-face with issues. I love the intersection of science and art, and the capacity to reach people in a way that only art can.

Connected to the Wild

Show Statement:

Artists

Stay INFORMED

About the Endangered SPECIES COALITION