In ecology, the boundary separating two biomes is referred to as an ecotone. These boundaries may be distinct or blend into one another, creating a diverse landscape known as an edge effect. The collaboration between two artists, like an edge effect found in the natural world, can create a new dynamic never explicated. It is in this fluid, fecund area of collaboration that we found ourselves in — an experienced artist beginning the fourth decade of my career, and Chelsea, with a desire to begin her craft anew. 

Chelsea grew up in and was somewhat familiar with the high plains and forested mountains that surround Laramie while I, an outsider, had eyes afresh. They originally met fifteen years ago after Chelsea transferred from the University of Wyoming to Northern Arizona University where I was teaching figure drawing. I sat on Chelsea's  BFA committee and helped instill a love for drawing as well as an interest in installation art. This relationship marked a desire to collaborate with each other and with the landscape of southeastern Wyoming.

In the fall of 2023, to prepare for their exhibit, we took a reconnaissance trip to the Snowy Range. We drove into the heart of the forest witnessing the destruction caused by wildfire due to an epidemic of mountain pine beetle kill off and, ultimately, a warming climate. Slopes of once forest green have now turned to standing gray after hot flames swept through. We wanted to understand why and how this had happened and to create an installation exploring this history. Though the landscape change within the Snowy Range has been relatively recent, what really set this precedent in motion was Manifest Destiny and the future attendant policies of how forests have been managed since 1910. Federal policy called for the curtailing and suppression of natural fire. Before suppression, frequent low intensity fire regimes were vital in maintaining healthy lodgepole pine forests within the Snowy Range. 

For hundreds of years, fire has been a key critical ingredient in maintaining healthy forests, both in the ponderosa pine forests of northern Arizona where we call home, and in the lodgepole pine forests of southern Wyoming. Ponderosas became resilient to fire by adapting thick bark, while the thin-barked lodgepole pine evolved through its resinous hard serotinous cones. These cones helped ensure regeneration through fire. Fire is needed to soften the resin that seals the cone scales protecting the seeds housed within, thus freeing and releasing the seeds for reproduction. 

The Snowy Range is typical of a pure lodgepole pine forest. Historically, endemic native mountain pine beetles would attack older tree stands, moving from tree to tree. Just as wolves predate and cull single unhealthy elk, endemic beetle populations typically infest diseased and stressed trees, killing each one. Then, frequent low-intensity fires would clean and clear these dead trees along with dog-haired dense stands. At the same time, fire’s heat softens the mature serotinous resinous cones in the crowns of the trees, allowing the seeds to escape and drop to the ground below. Both native elements, insect and fire, are vital in maintaining a healthy lodgepole pine biome. 

The Snowy Range today exhibit what happens when fire suppression is introduced into a pure lodgepole pine landscape. We are now witnesses to warming temperatures, which have allowed an epidemic beetle population to thrive. As relative newcomers, humans have become viewers to this relatively new, Gallery of Fire.