Sawdust Mountain: A Different Picture of Sustainability

Jeremy Richards
12/12/2009

Logging in the Northwest used to be about harvesting a seemingly unlimited resource. But in places like Nemah, Washington, Douglas firs are now grown like crops. This technique boosts economic production, but environmentalists say it reduces biodiversity. Photographer Eirik Johnson set out to understand that tension between environmental protection and Washington's timber and fishing industries in his book "Sawdust Mountain." The Seattle native told KUOW's Jeremy Richards that the photographs he took gave him a very different picture of sustainability in the Northwest.

Segment music: "Rain On Me" by Thierry David