Photo of the Day 28 July 2008


Lodgepole Pines, Yellowstone, Montana, 1989
Photograph by Jonathan Blair
A stand of lodgepole pine trees in Montana’s Yellowstone Park are backlit by the glow of the 1988 North Fork Fire, which charred nearly 800,000 acres (324,000 hectares) of the park. Such fires are actually good news for lodgepoles, whose pine cones need extreme heat to release their seeds.