Photo contest winners point lens at Oregon's beautiful but threatened wildlands

Endangered Places winning photograph, "Port Orford Cedar at Vulcan Lake" by Brizz Meddings.

A shimmering image of a Port Orford cedar rising above Southern Oregon's Vulcan Lake was one of five winners in Oregon Wild's annual outdoor photo contest.

Brizz Meddings image of a Port Orford cedar at Vulcan Lake in Southern Oregon won for endangered places.The photo by Brizz Meddings, a construction manager from the Lane County community of Noti, won first prize for endangered places as it highlighted Oregon's Yellowstone -- the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area in southern Oregon that is threatened by mining, off-road vehicles and global climate change.

Greg Vaughn, a professional photographer from the Portland area, won the wildlands category for his photo of aspens at Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge; Jody Ellis, a retiree from Portland, won the waters category with an image of Sparks Lake in the Deschutes National Forest; and Gary Sheldon, a nurse from the Portland area, won the wildlife category with his portrait of a sea lion from Astoria.

The contest was created to promote Oregon's beautiful, but threatened, wildlands and wildlife. Each year, it features a different threatened region.

"We get stunning photos from all over," said Sean Stevens, who coordinates the photo contest at Oregon Wild. "But the potential inspirational impact of a breathtaking image from a place at risk is the real reason we host this contest."

 -- Abby Haight