This picture was taken in a roadside meadow just east of Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon, a few miles northwest of the western theme town of Sisters on Highway 20.
The three tree trunks in the foreground are ponderosa pine(Pinus ponderosa). Old growth ponderosa pine forests were once common in dry regions of the west, but they are a commercially valuable species, so they have been heavily logged. Mature ponderosa pines are easily identified by the dramatically colored bark which turns from black to yellow brown after about 150 years (according to one authority).
The grove of trees in the background are quaking aspens, Populus tremuloides. Aspens reproduce primarily by cloning themselves through sprouts from roots, so the aspens in this picture are probably all part of the same organism. In fact, an 100 acre aspen grove in Utah is this planets' largest organism. Because they continually reproduce new stems, scientists think some aspen groves have survived since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Aspens are the most widely distributed tree in North America.
Here is a nice satellite image of the area where this photo was taken which clearly shows the Big Meadow Golf Course (top) and Glaze Meadow Golf Course (bottom) at Black Butte Ranch. This photo was taken in the upper center of the image, where the light colored meadow intersects the curve in Highway 20. Black Butte Ranch is a resort and retirement community located near Sisters, Oregon, in the Willamette National Forest.
