Tom Spies

Tom Spies spent a highly accomplished career as a forest ecologist with the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station specializing in studies of old-growth forests across the Pacific Northwest region. Key accomplishments include leading synthesis efforts culminating in the book Old Growth in a New World (co-edited with Sally Duncan) and a massive review of the relevant science produced following the signing of the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994 to guide management of federal forests in the range of the northern spotted owl. After retirement he got serious about photography and rekindled his boyhood love of astronomy. In his photographs, he seeks to connect the wonders of the night sky with the otherworldliness of landscapes at night. He especially likes to photograph silhouettes of trees against the dark (but still bright!) starry sky. His first images from the Andrews were made along Frissell Ridge, which forms the eastern boundary of the Andrews Forest.