DOCUMENTING PANDO
Lance Oditt on leading the photography of the ‘world’s largest tree’
PRO BIO
Lance Oditt runs a fine art and documentary studio based in Seattle, Washington. He takes photographs to stir a deeper awareness for the possibilities of the natural world and a sense of stewardship towards it. www.studio4760north.com
All images © Lance Oditt
High in the Fish Lake Basin of Central Utah stands Pando, the world’s largest tree; an aspen-clone that spreads over 47 hectares of the Fishlake National Forest. Born of a single seed laid down some time in the last 12,000 years, Pando, whose name means ‘I spread’, wasn’t discovered until 1972. It took another 36 years and advances in genetic research to verify that each ‘trunk’ of the Pando is one of 47,000 genetically identical branches of a single tree; each part working to balance energy production, defence and regeneration.