Roadless Area Photographs | Photos of Energy Development on Forest Service Land | Roadless Book | Videos | Maps
Since 2005 I have driven, hiked and kayaked tens of thousands of miles to photograph our country's least known public lands, the "Inventoried Roadless Areas". These are lands of subtle beauty and extremely high ecological value. As a whole, they are largely unknown.
I began this project to help raise awareness about these lands so that they will remain protected. I have shown photographs of these places in the US Senate and around the country.
What are these places?... In January 2001, these lands were protected from road-building by a forest service rule called The Roadless Rule. The Roadless Rule was arguably one of the largest conservation actions by the federal government in decades, but almost nobody knew about it or about the lands that it protected. Since 2001 the status of these lands has been repeatedly threatened by lawsuits and government actions.
Why are roads a problem? Click "Just the Facts" in the upper right corner of this page, and find out much more here.
Where are they?...Find maps of these places and more info about them at Roadlessland.org. All of the photos in the gallery page have links to maps on Roadlessland.org so that you can see where they were taken and go there yourself.
Book: "ROADLESS - In Search of America's Least Known Public Lands"
In preparation, this book will include photographs and writings about Nelson's explorations of America's Inventoried Roadless Areas
Join the mailing list if you'd like to be notified when my book is released or when an exhibit might be in your area (I will never send spam mail).
Support: This project has received a great deal of support from countless small non-profits who work to conserve roadless areas – especially from people in Alaska where access was challenging. Partial financial support has also been generously provided by these following groups: The Saada Family Foundation, Environmental Defense and The Heritage Forests Campaign.
