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IT THKES CENTURIES OF SLOW
GROWTH FOR THE
world’s tallest trees to reach heights far beyond the tops of their surrounding forests. As they stretch for the sky, the giants nurture ever-changing ecosys-tems of plants and animals. Since 2015, Steven Pearce and Jennifer Sanger, a Tasmanian photographer-and- ecologist duo, have been documenting Earth’sunique and underappreciated behemoths. The pair
use rock climbing gear to ascend hundreds of feet fromthe trees’ roots to their wind-punished crowns. Withthe help of a homemade dual-camera rig attached to a pulley system, Pearce shoots dozens of photos overseveral weeks at each site and combines them into massive gigapixel panoramas. The resulting imagescapture the long-standing beauties before human interference can diminish or destroy them.
A Sitka spruce,
BY THE SEA(prEVIoUs)located just a mile from the Pacific coast in Oregon’s Siuslaw National Forest, looms above its neigh-bors, exposing the top half of its nearly 259-foot trunk to salty sea breezes that turn its branches dry and brittle. Closer inspec-tion reveals a scar in the bark near the tiny climber in yellow. The mark measures more than six feet long and two feet wide, likely caused by damage from a coastal storm years in the past.