A Day in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest by Photographs by Dennis Flaherty, Essays by Mark A. Schlenz

Near the California-Nevada border, high in the White Mountains, Bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) have lived longer than any other trees in the world. Some trees in this Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest have stood nearly 5,000 years on the same ground they hold today in their subalpine woodland groves.Visitors to Methuselah Ridge and to the Patriarch Grove walk among trees that first gathered the sun's light into life as early human civilizations were just emerging. A day among the ancient bristlecone pines brings you into the living presence of history. Here, since time immemorial, our Earth's story has been written in ageless wood with every season's passing. Here, inspired by their triumphs over adversity and awed by the incredible beauty wrested from their struggles, you walk among trees of light.

A Day in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest reflects the inspiring beauty of these trees of light in stunning photographic images that give rare glimpses into the seasons of their lives as they are sculpted by wind, ice, and time. In these images from the ancient forest, veteran Eastern Sierra landscape photographer Dennis Flaherty explores an artistic vision of nature as artist. Short essays by Mark Schlenz — Forest in the Sky, Trees of Life, Trees of Time, and Trees of Light — reflect upon the life cycle and extraordinary longevity of bristlecone pines, trace their contributions to science and to interpretations of human history, and explore their transformation by nature's forces into forms of unimaginable beauty living, dying, and enduring in their mountain fastness. Includes a section on visiting the 28,000-acre Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest east of Bishop, California.

64 pages, 9" x 9", full-color cover, 45 color photographs plus 6 historic black & white photographs, bibliography.
ISBN 978-0-944197-85-1. trade paper