Places Volume 5

PLACES 

On Assignment with Jerry Monkman 

THE MERRIMACK: 

RIVER AT RISK 

Putting a spotlight on one of 

America’s most endangered rivers. 

CONSERVATION PHOTO 

PROJECTS 

Forests, farms, fires and more 

from across the Northeast. 

MAINE TOURISM SHOOTS 

Headin’ upta camp.

Sunset at Square Lake in Maine’s Aroostook County. 

2 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY SPRING 2020

From Jerry 

I was just a week away from sending out this edition of Places when the 

Covid-19 pandemic changed all of our lives in so many ways. In my house, 

that meant the return of a college freshman and learning how to live 

together as a family of four again – a minor change that I’m grateful for! I 

hope you and your family are experiencing relatively mild impacts as well. 

On the Cover: Dawn breaks in New 

Hampshire’s Great Bay. 

During the last few months, we’ve all been itching to get out of the house 

whenever we get the chance to do it safely. In the best-case scenario that 

means being able to walk, run, or hike in a park or forest close to home. 

For me, the pandemic has reinforced the need for there to be a variety 

of conserved open space in all communities. The majority of my career 

has been spent working with non-profits to publicize land conservation 

projects throughout the northeastern US, and in these times, I am 

even more impressed with the amazing work these organizations have 

accomplished over the last three decades. Many of the photos on the 

following pages show how this work continues. 

Be well, stay safe, and enjoy the outdoors! 

-Jerry 

Table of Contents 

The Merrimack: River at Risk................................................................................4-5 

Putting a spotlight on one of America’s most endangered rivers. 

Conservation Photo Projects............................................................................... 6-21 

Forests, farms, fires and more from across the Northeast. 

Maine Tourism Shoots........................................................................................22-26 

An award-winning "Headin’ upta camp" marketing project. 

P.O. Box 59, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03802 

603-498-1140 

jerry@ecophotography.com 

www.ecophotography.com 

SUMMER 2020 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 3

Film 

NH & MA 

The Merrimack: 

River at Risk 


Feature-length documentary to be 

released this summer 

The Merrimack River is the birthplace 

of the industrial revolution 

in America. Factories in cities like 

Manchester, New Hampshire and 

Lowell, Massachusetts were the 

largest textile mills in the world in 

the 19th century. Like many rivers in 

America, the Merrimack was heavily 

polluted by the 1960’s, but due to the 

Clean Water Act, the Merrimack has 

been cleaned up considerably since 

then. Remarkably, more than 80% 

of the Merrimack watershed is still 

undeveloped and largely forested, 

yet in 2016 the river was named 

one of the most endangered rivers 

in the US by American Rivers. Since 

then, I have been working with the 

Society for the Protection of New 

Hampshire Forests to produce a 

film that tells the Merrimack’s 

story and explains why the river is 

in trouble today. Almost four years 

later, we have finished that film – 

The Merrimack: River at Risk. The 

pandemic has shuttered our plans 

for theater screenings for the time 

being, but I’m proud to announce 

the film’s broadcast premier will be 

on July 23rd when it will air on New 

Hampshire PBS. 

https://ecophotography.com/a-new-film-the-merrimack-river-at-risk/ 


Conservation 

NEW ENGLAND 

Conservation Photo 

Projects 


Forests, farms, fires and 

more from across the 

Northeast 

Two and a half years ago, I produced a video for 

the Harvard Forest that introduces people to their 

conservation vision for the Northeastern US called 

“Wildlands and Woodlands.” (You can see that 

video and others on my site here: https://archive. 

ecophotography.com/video.) Their vision makes the 

case that we can still conserve 70% of our land as 

forests and 7% as farms, while also sustaining vibrant 

communities. Forests provide wood products and 

jobs, clean the air, and provide clean drinking water. 

And it’s possible to feed most of the region with that 

7% of farmland. Many of the photos I’m asked to shoot 

are for forest and farm conservation projects, and I 

love visiting and shooting in places that most people 

have never seen. Over the next several pages, I share 

photos of forests and farms, fires and scientists, and 

a little solar power. 



Battenkill River sunrise, Shushan, NY. 


Hiking on land conserved by 

The Conservation Fund in 

southern Vermont. 


Exploring the newly created Bethel Community Forest in Bethel, Maine. 

Forest in western Maine in the path of a proposed transmission line. 



Mountain biking on new conservation land in southern New Hampshire. 


Farms 

I’ve shot farm conservation projects across New 

England, from northwestern Connecticut to central 

Maine. In the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough 

to work close to home for the Southeast Land Trust of 

NH on several forest projects as well as some of their 

projects conserving local farmland. Many of the farms 

are places that I buy veggies from at our local farmer’s 

market every Saturday in the summer. I love being 

asked to work these farms, and I really enjoy being able 

to envision the land where my food was grown while 

sitting down with family and friends for a meal. And 

now these farms will remain farmland in the future. 

It’s also nice to work on projects where I can sleep in my 

own bed at home! 


Above left: Three women process a 

beet harvest in South Hampton, NH. 

Above right: A young man feeds 

his calves at a dairy farm in New 

Hampshire. 

Middle and below right: Kinney 

Hill Farm in South Hampton, New 

Hampshire. 


Women harvest kale in South Hampton, New Hampshire on 

land recently conserved by the Southeast Land Trust of NH. 



Prescribed Burn 

In September, The Nature Conservancy asked me to 

photograph a prescribed burn on one of their grassland 

preserves in Maine. Grasslands are less common 

in Maine than they used to be, not only because of 

development, but because they tend to revert to forests 

if they aren’t burned every few years. This community 

provides nesting habitat for several rare ground nesting 

grassland birds including the grasshopper sparrow, 

upland sandpiper, and short-eared owl. These open 

grasslands also provide excellent habitat for a rare 

snake, the northern black racer. I was very impressed 

with the Nature Conservancy staff’s attention to detail 

and ability to safely complete this burn exactly as 

planned. 



Solar Panel 

Installations 

It was great to have the opportunity 

to shoot a couple of solar panel 

installations as part of a project for 

the Barr Foundation. The industry 

is booming, providing excellent 

jobs and affordable, carbon-free 

electricity that is a key part in our 

efforts to stem the effects of climate 

change. 


Manomet 

I’ve had a blast shooting primarily 

video projects for Manomet during 

the last two years as we work on 

telling their story of using science 

and partnering with business to 

foster a sustainable world. Manomet 

applies conservation science to 

industries that impact all of us: 

forestry, commercial fisheries, and 

agriculture. The organization got 

its start 50 years ago conducting 

bird research and that’s still a big 

part of their work (and really fun to 

shoot!) They have one of the longest 

continuously run land bird banding 

stations in the world, and they are 

leaders in the study of shorebirds 

in the western hemisphere (like this 

whimbrel being outfitted with a 

GPS transmitter in the back seat of 

a Toyota.) 


Recreation 

MAINE 

Maine Tourism 

Shoots 

Headin’ upta camp 

Over the course of my 20+ year career, I have been to 

so many places in the state of Maine, from Portland and 

the south coast near my home in Portsmouth, NH, to the 

western mountains and the Appalachian Trail, to one of 

my all-time favorite places, Acadia National Park. When 

I was asked to shoot in the Deboullie Public Reserve Land, 

I was surprised that I had never even heard of the place. 

And then once I arrived, I was even more surprised. The 

ponds, cliffs, mountains, and forest are classic Maine 

wilderness, home to bears and moose, great hiking, 

hunting, camping, and paddling, and a classic Maine 

wilderness lodge (Red River Camps) to use as a base to 

explore it all. My work on this project with Thalo Blue 

Destination Marketing, and Aroostook County Tourism 

received the 2020 Maine Tourism Marketing and 

Promotion Award. A video about the collaboration can 

be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/420535493. 






facebook.com/ecophotography 

twitter.com/jerrymonkman 

linkedin.com/in/jerrymonkman 

instagram.com/jerrymonkman 


P.O. Box 59 

Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03802 

603-498-1140 

jerry@ecophotography.com 

www.ecophotography.com

Places Volume 5

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