In February, Forest Society staff forester Gabe Roxby was invited to participate in a virtual panel discussion focusing on the intersection of forestry and art. The event was organized and hosted by New England College and featured the work of photographer David Paul Bayles. 

Bayles' exhibit, titled “Sap in their Veins,” focused on a logging community in the Pacific Northwest that he was a part of in the 1970s. The panel included a discussion of some of the social, economic, and environmental topics related to forestry, and was, in part, aimed at telling personal stories of those involved in logging as a way to de-polarize the subject. 

Bayles focuses on landscapes where the needs of forests and human pursuits often collide, sometimes coexist and on occasion find harmony. Some of his projects utilize a documentary approach while others use a more contemporary art practice. Bayles’ deep connection with trees was forged in the mid seventies when he left the suburbs of Los Angeles to work four years as a logger in the Sierra Nevada mountains. He currently lives and photographs in the Coast range of western Oregon, where highly efficient industrialized working forests supplanted the massive old growth forests many decades ago. 

Gabe and the other panelists engaged with students and faculty, and were able to speak on some of the similarities and differences in forest composition and management styles between the forests of New Hampshire and those of the Pacific Northwest. Gabe has been a field forester for the Forest Society since 2012, after graduating from UNH with a M.S. in Natural Resources and a focus in Forestry.

"Collaborating with local colleges helps fulfill the Forest Society’s mission to educate communities across the state about sustainable forestry and working forests," Field Forester Gabe Roxby said.

Thank you to New England College for the invitation and we hope to work with their students and those from other schools on more projects like this in the future!

• To learn more about David Paul Bayles' art, you can visit his website page on the "Sap in Their Veins" exhibit or see his latest creations on his Instagram page.