Where is the last forest?
Past, present, and future
Arctic Treeline. Sunrise to sunset and the Aurora Borealis. A meditation to explore using Procreate Dreams. Animation by Anna Eshelman. Music by Last Forest with synth by Joseph Pitt.
The last forest is in the far North near the Arctic Circle, slivers of stunted life in stark Boreal form.
The last forest is wind-blown, subpolar, hanging onto the tip of Chile, not far from the deep unknowns of the Southern Ocean.
The last forest is dotted along the lower elevations of North America’s Rocky Mountain spine before it disappears into the smoothing of the eastward plains.
The last forest is the stretch of woods along the parkway you see out the window on your bus trip to The Big Apple.
During the forming of the last Snowball Earth, was the last forest visible from space as a bright strip of green along the equator, surrounded by glacial plain and bright white ice?
Or was the last forest on a sandstone island in a brine lake during the great fires at the end of the Cretaceous?
The last intact ancient forest of our future could be hanging on by a thread three thousand years from now: The ancient temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest coast.
Some of the largest Sitka Spruces, Douglas Firs, and Western Redcedars live in the temperate rainforests that blanket the Hoh River Valley. Photo by Anna Eshelman.
Wherever and whenever the last forest is, it is a refuge. A dream. A nightmare.