Watch Clearcuts and Habitat Fragmentation Grow Before Your Eyes!

I just ran across an interesting new Google tool called Earth Engine, that allows you to view a timelapse of annual Landsat imagines from 1984 to 2012.   I’ve only used the tool to poke around the northern Rockies region, but it’s especially interesting to look at the timelapse images from places like the Bitterroot National Forest, the Lolo and Flathead National Forest in the Seeley-Swan Valley and the Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forest along U.S. Highway 12, just over Lolo Pass.  Of course, the most dramatic timelapse images from Montana might be of the clearcuts and habitat fragmentation that took place on the Kootenai National Forest in northwest Montana.  Sadly, I have a feeling that some parts of the national forests in Washington and Oregon will show the growth of clearcuts and habitat fragmentation even better than Montana examples. Check it out for yourself.