A picture worth a two-parter – and a prize

A photo in The Seattle Times of landslides led its reporters Hal Bernton and Justin Mayo to look behind what caused the landslides – and the resulting $57 million in damage from them and the concomitant floods -- earning them and photographer Steve Ringman the James V. Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism.

Today’s Tip: Photographs and photojournalists often can offer great tips worth additional investigation. If something looks suspicious, check it out.

Their two-part series, which published in July 2008, looked at the role Weyerhaeuser played in the December 2007 landslides. As The Times wrote in announcing the award on Sept. 8:

Using software to map the impacts of clear-cutting by the timber company Weyerhaeuser, they found that such massive removal of trees in one harvest region accounted for one-third of landslides there.

The project "stood out for its ambition, its persistence and its compelling conclusions," one judge wrote. "The combination of computer-assisted reporting and strong interviews offered a template that should be used for journalists covering timber controversies and other land-use debates across the West."

The Times explains how it did the research comparing clear-cut areas to landslide sites, which undergirded the series and resulted in a very cool interactive map.