“What is and what is not create each other”
—
Bastrop, Texas – 09/04/2011
Winds howl and bite at everything in their way. Somewhere, a power line snaps loose, flailing sparks onto dry, cured brush. Sparks turn to flame, and flame turns to fire. Fire soon turns to maelstrom, and leaves a 34,356 acre patch of ash in its wake. Atomized trees, flowers, and wildlife circulate in the air, high above.
Bastrop, Texas – 04/14/2018
A string of pine saplings crowd the former path of a hiking trail, turning carbon in the air into needle and cone. The whiz and whine of two-stroke engines approach.
Gas and oil burn in metal cylinders, pumping pistons, spinning chains. Metal teeth shave and scoop bark, then heartwood, until the saplings meet their demise. Tossed aside out of view, they dry and decompose in the Texan sun. Soon again, humans will walk these trails.
—
“Mold clay into a bowl.
The empty space makes it useful.
Cut out doors and windows for the house.
The holes make it useful.
Therefore, the value comes from what is there,
But the use comes from what is not there.”
Robbie Helgason – TAT Crew Member
Conservation Corps of American YouthWorks 