Lake Baikal
I've been documenting Lake Baikal for almost 25 years - starting when Russia was still the Soviet Union and the phrase "going to Siberia" had a whole different meaning. In 1990, conservation icon David Brower (now deceased) invited me on a special project to help get Baikal designated a World Heritage Site. The project resulted in Baikal: Sacred Sea of Siberia, which I photographed, Peter Matthiessen authored and the Sierra Club published in 1992. Baikal was named a World Heritage Site in 1996. I have been returning to Baikal frequently ever since that project. It is truly one of the world's scenic jewels. Lake Baikal is the oldest lake at 25 million years, the deepest at 5,700 feet, and it has the most volume holding 20 percent of the the world's liquid fresh water! It is nearly surrounded by rugged mountains and beautiful forests, most of which are protected. But a pulp plant built in the 1960s at the southern tip of the lake has been a source of pollution and of environmental concern.--Boyd Norton
