Gallery: Hypnotic Animations Show Why Trees Depend on Forest Fires
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Eleanor Lutz makes infographics. Her technique involves pairing knotty scientific topics with clever, sublime visuals. Here she's at work on a new graphic about fire ecology.
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She organized this infographic into a series of Pokémon- or baseball-inspired trading cards, highlighting the unique properties and behaviors of each featured plant.
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The field of fire ecology acknowledges wildland fires as instrumental to a functioning ecosystem—a point of view likely lost on most.
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“Most people tend to think about natural events from mostly a human perspective—like how forest fires or flooding affect you—but this other perspective is really interesting too,” Lutz says.
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To illustrate it, she built low-relief paper sculptures of six different plants and then set a match to them. This one is the giant sequoia. “The giant sequoia took 12 hours to cut and glue together," Lutz says. "It’s a little sad to torch these, but I made them with that intention. Plus they look beautiful burnt.”
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Each featured plant is native to California, where wildfires are rampant, especially in recent drought years.
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The narrow focus appeals to Lutz. “There’s a knowledge barrier to accessing some of the interesting, awesome things about science. There are so many facts and equations, and I want those cool ideas to be accessible," she says.
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“This isn’t a guide for the science community, so I’m free to use a more artistic style that skips specific details like exact seed size and leaf length.”
