If a single photograph is worth a thousand words, Paul Hosten figures two photographs can tell a whole story.

Particularly if the second photograph is taken from the same site a century or so later.

For the last couple of years, the ecologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Medford District has been collecting historic photographs taken by the likes of early-day forest ranger John Gribble and pioneer photographer Peter Britt, tracking down the sites where the shots were taken and snapping new ones.

He is employing what is called "repeat photography" to compare the old and new vegetation as part of a research project to better understand the regional landscape.

"In particular, we're studying non-conifer communities," Hosten explained. "We know so little about them in southwest Oregon and how they have changed over time. This will improve our understanding of those plant communities.

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"I'm interested in photos that show change as well as photos that don't show change," he added later. "They both tell me something."

The insight gained from comparing the then-and-now photographs will help the agency manage its land, he said. The latter provides a benchmark for future comparisons in charting changes in plant communities.

"There are a lot of places that historically were grasslands that are now woodland or dominated by conifers," he said. "The patterns of change on the landscape are not simplistic."

Hosten has been working closely on the project with scholars at Oregon State University and Southern Oregon University. He also has been tapping the knowledge of photo archivist Carol Harbison Samuelson at the Southern Oregon Historical Society and Jan Wright, executive director of the Talent Historical Society.

Hosten isn't the only one interested in repeat photography.

People periodically drop in at the SOHS office in Medford to compare the old with the new, Harbison Samuelson said.

"When people are renovating an old building, they often want to look at historic images of it," she said. "They want to recreate the way it looked originally."

Others are simply interested in changing times, she said. For instance, two local historic postcard collectors have been taking repeat photographs to put their collections into perspective.

"One fellow is interested in railroad trestles; the other collects postcards about auto camps and motels," she said. "They take photos of the same sites to see how they have changed."

Jeff LaLande, archaeologist and historian for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, likes to compare old photographs with current shots taken from the same spot to put a historic site, particularly an old homestead, into perspective.

"In many cases, you look at the meadow where the homestead was and it's often heavily invaded by conifers," he said. "The meadow is almost gone."

Gribble, who died 40 years ago next month at age 94, inspected homestead patent applications to see if they met the requirements of the Forest Homestead Act of 1906 after he began working for the U.S. Forest Service in Jackson County in 1908. The law mandated the site must be agriculturally sustainable.

"Part of his job was to do a survey of the homestead area," Hosten said. "So he had a good idea of where he was. And he took excellent notes about where he was when he took the photos."

That included making maps showing the exact location where he shot some of his photographs. In some cases, he included township range and section, sometimes even quarter section, of the site.

Based on Gribble's notes, Hosten has used geographic information system technology to find the exact location of several sites where Gribble shot photographs.

"When we don't have maps, it's often just intuition and knowledge of the landscape that leads me to the spot where the original photo was taken," he said.

No map was needed when he compared an 1858 artist's etching of Jacksonville depicting large well-spaced conifers on the hills overlooking the historic town. Hosten's photograph from nearly the same vantage point reveals much more vegetation without the spacing.

However, an 1884 photograph taken by Peter Britt and provided by SOHS reveals a lot of oak trees among those conifers, he noted.

"That showed how some of the oldest etchings may not be an accurate reflection of the landscape," he said. "It looks to me like the artist left out a lot of the smaller trees and shrubs to show off the big trees."

After all, there was no way the big oak trees could have grown in the intervening 26 years, he said.

Artistic license notwithstanding, there are other factors to consider when comparing the old and new, he said.

"Even the oldest photos we can find have at least 30 to 50 years of active management by Europeans," he said. "Another thing to remember is that disease like small pox and measles and influenza influenced Native American populations a long time before these early homesteaders arrived. So some of the changes we are picking up may actually be changes as the consequence of reduced Native American populations."

A photograph taken Sept. 17, 1915, shows a portion of Mount Ashland where 1,800 sheep had been grazing, depleting the vegetation, Hosten said.

"In the repeat photo, you see the area has improved tremendously in terms of the return of native grasses," he said. "There are a lot more shrubs now, including aspen. It's quite possible a lot of the high-elevation areas are still recovering from livestock impacts from over 100 years ago."

An ancient Ford with a 1927 license plate chugs down old Highway 99 at the Oregon-California border just south of the Siskiyou Summit in one old photograph.

"In the background you can see a high elevation oak thicket," he said. "In the new photo from the same spot, you can see that thicket hasn't changed much over time."

However, an oak woodland in the foreground that was more open in the late 1920s has become thick with vegetation in the Hosten photograph.

"There could be several reasons why it was more open," he said. "It could be that a fire had gone through there and some of the trees were top killed. They resprouted. Or it is possible that some of the trees were cut down to build that fence over there in the photo. Or maybe someone cut the trees down for firewood."

The alternative explanations demonstrate how challenging it is to interpret photographs, he observed. As a result, he is attempting to gather as many historic photographs as possible to shed light on the past.

One old photograph of Highway 66 a few miles west of Greensprings shows many large fir and pine trees above the road. The new photograph portrays no large trees.

"Once the road was put in, it was really easy to cut those big guys down," he said. "But once they are missing and the seed source is gone, it's very hard for those trees to come back."

When wildfires periodically swept through an area, it was easier for those trees to re-establish themselves, he said.

"These changes speak both for past management and also the fact we don't have as much fire on the landscape now," he said.

Hosten, who has collected hundreds of historic landscape photographs and hopes to work with private landowners in the future to obtain more repeat photographs, wants to eventually publish a book showing the old and the new.

"They are so interesting because they capture not only vegetation change but the history of our landscapes," he said. "They show the cultural changes. I'd like to make that available to people."

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.

Hosten discusses photography project

CENTRAL POINT — Ecologist Paul Hosten will discuss his "repeat photography" research project Jan. 18 as guest speaker at the Jackson County Small Woodlands Association's annual dinner meeting.

Non-members are welcome to the event, to be held at the Oregon State University Extension Service auditorium, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point.

Cost of the dinner is $15 per person and reservations are required by calling 776-7371. Dinner check-in is 6 p.m., with dinner following at 6:30 p.m. and the program at 7 p.m. Deadline to reserve a seat is Jan. 16.

The dinner, which includes either meat or vegetarian main dishes, will be catered as a fundraiser by the Jackson 4-H Leaders Association.

The JCSWA is a non-profit group dedicated to improving management of the county's private forestlands. The group hosts monthly evening programs and weekend tours providing information on many aspects of forest management on small tracts of private land.