Spring 2024

To fully appreciate the gravity of Lanting and Eckstrom’s enthusiasm for the greater Monterey Bay, consider where they’ve worked over the last several decades: The Amazon, Africa, Australia, Antarctica. Every continent—several times. Lanting alone has been photo- graphing nature since the 1970s. The resulting images are so poignant, they’ve put formerly little-known locations on the map. Take Botswana’s Okavango Delta, a place teeming with everything from elephants to leopards, but even Lanting’s eye-level shots of humble water lilies will take your breath away. From the scary to the sub- lime, the dainty to the downright dirty, he’s been close enough to feel its breath. On first glance, people could argue that his photographs are paintings. He’s that good. The global rovers had just cleared their calen- dars when the international pandemic struck. They’d decided that beginning in March of 2020, they’d spend the next couple of years docu- menting what lives, breathes and lurks in our stunning section of the world. Despite COVID-19 they car- ried on, observing and inter- acting with life forms un- touched by the pandemic. What they found enhanced their faith in local conservation efforts, including by the Mon- terey Bay Aquarium MBARI, the Big Sur Land Trust, Watsonville Wetlands Watch and many other local environ- mental nonprofits. “Old-timers remember that 50 years ago, you would hardly see a whale on the bay. And you would never have a chance to see a mountain lion because their populations were far reduced. All of these species have come back in the last 50 years because of legis- lation and conservation and education, and 128 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 4 Redwoods need rain, but they receive up to 40 percent of their annual water from summer fog. Under the right conditions, they can live seemingly forever, as their scientific name implies: Sequoia sempervirens , meaning “ever-living redwood.” A new tree sprouting in a grove of fire-blackened redwoods in Big Basin visualizes the resilience of nature.