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California’s redwood trees are a national treasure and a living witness to our past. The largest of California’s redwoods grow in excess of two hundred and fifty feet tall and are capable of living for millennia. In recent years, an alarming number of old-growth trees residing in Redwood National Park have been shorn of the gnarled protrusions that grow on their trunks, called burls. Essential to the tree’s reproduction process, these burls are illegally cut by poachers who seek to sell the distinctive wood on the black market for use in fine woodworking. Concerned over the welfare of the iconic old-growth trees, photographers Kirk Crippens and Gretchen LeMaistre work with park rangers to access and photograph each damaged tree for their series, Live Burls. Working with a traditional 8x10 inch analog view camera, the artists produce breathtaking images that recall the majestic beauty of the ancient trees while drawing attention to the environmental injustice at hand. See "Live Burls" by #KirkCrippens and #GretchenLeMaistre , on display, pre-security in Terminal 1. http://bit.ly/2x8ZtST This image was posted on September 17, 2018.