Wounded Forest

Winter Olympic Art Day 9

The Okanagan area of British Columbia was devastated by a powerful and destructive forest fire that pretty well burned up the entire Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, plus 239 Kelowna homes and if that was not enough, nearly all the historic railway trestles in the Myra Canyon section of the Kettle Valley Railway, thankfully there were no lives lost. This is a view of Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park that shows the scorched and blackened tree trunks of Ponderosa pine trees after the wild fire ripped through the area in the summer of 2003, the image was made a few months later in December of that year and gave the whole area a true black and white look.

Although the forest took a direct hit, in time it will come back, the old burned trees will eventually fall and decay , while new younger trees will take their place, to regenerate the natural rhythms of the forest. As with the Olympic athletes not all will reach the winner's podium, many will turn back to try for future Olympics down the road, or young athletes not at today's 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver will train to become tomorrow's Olympic heros.