Sneezeweed in the Wind On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
A gust arrives
and the sneezeweed bows
all at once.
Someone might call this
wildflower behavior.
But from where I’m standing
it looks suspiciously like art—
yellow disks
sketching circles in the air
while the wind
keeps erasing the drawing.
— kenne
Mushroom in Pine Needles — Image by kenne
Under ponderosa shade
one pale cap
holding up
a whole sky of trees.
— kenne
Birdbill Dayflowers On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— kenne
Bright Colors of the Season — Image by kenne
— kenne
Snow on Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— from Stopping by the Woods On a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost
Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— kenne
An Orange-Capped Mushroom on Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— kenne
Aspen Trail on Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— kenne
Image by kenne
Fenceline, Mt. Lemmon
Yellow leans into the wind,
a soft surrender of summer.
Along the fence,
the season loosens its grip—
beauty, brief
and already leaving.
A Fall Scene On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— kenne
Aspen Trail On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— kenne
Photo-artistry by kenne
Mt. Lemmon’s fall colors become artificial near the fenceline
— kenne
Pine Cone on Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
Mt. Lemmon Forest Colors — Image by kenne
WILD NATURE is not a crop but a cathedral, and a single old-growth forest is a databank containing more info than any legions of supercomputers could hold. Forests belong in a Department of Climate Defense, a Department of Homeland or of Global Security, a physical and spiritual Department of the Interior. So why is the U.S. Forest Service housed within the Department of Agriculture? It’s a relic of an earlier era of convenient ignorance, when we were told that animals do not feel pain, and that forests were just crops of fiber that could be farmed like corn. How did DOGE’s whiz kids overlook this fiscal and silvicultural mismanagement?
Forests absorb about a third of the world’s annual carbon emissions globally — but older trees absorb far and away the most. Our old and mature forests are an enormous asset in this planet’s climate portfolio. And yet the Forest Service is still working to clear-cut old growth. In the West, 75% of the agency’s current proposed timber sales are at least a mile or farther from the “wildland-urban interface” — the small towns and villages in harm’s way from the dragon breath of global warming. — Source: High Country News in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network
Wild Raspberries On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
The path is narrow,
soft with pine needles, and silent.
Mist rises from the shaded ground.
Clusters of raspberries—
deep red against green thicket—
catch the slant of morning.
Not gathered,
not even noticed,
except by the breeze
and a single bird,
waiting.
Here, the mountain offers sweetness
without asking.
