Places Volume 1

PLACES
In the Field with Jerry Monkman
THE POWER OF PLACE
Jerry’s film about a controversial
electricity transmission line project
hits New Hampshire theaters.
MAKING A GREENWAY
A land trust in southern New
Hampshire aims to protect open
spaces in a sprawl-threatened region.
DISCOVER ACADIA
Work begins on the 4th edition
of this classic guidebook to
Maine’s national park.
BIG SIX
Protecting the Quebecois
tradition of producing maple
syrup in northern Maine.
MAINE’S HIGH PEAKS
Conservation efforts in Maine’s north
woods aim to protect vital wild places
near the Appalachian Trail.
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 1

PLACES
In the Field With
Jerry Monkman
The sun shines through a grove of Eastern
Hemlock trees in southern New Hampshire.
2 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015

From Jerry
2015 has brought me to a variety of beautiful places in New England. Many are
relatively unknown, some are threatened by development, all are worthy of
permanent protection. Several of my projects this year involved photographing
land that is in the path of urban sprawl or has the potential to be developed for
second homes. This has been the case for many of the places I have worked over the
course of my 20+ year career. What’s becoming clear to me is that over this time
span, my clients have successfully begun a process of not only protecting land for
wildlife and recreation, but they are also creating corridors from north to south,
and from sea level to alpine zones, that will help some species survive the coming
change in climate, and I expect much of my work in the ensuing decades will
be guided by climate change.
Most of the stories here have appeared in one form or another on my website, but
I still love seeing photos printed on paper, hence this magazine. I hope you enjoy
turning the pages as much as I enjoyed putting these photos and stories together.
Cheers,
Jerry
Table of Contents
THE POWER OF PLACE............................................................................................4-5
A film about a controversial electricity transmission line project hits New Hampshire theaters.
DISCOVER ACADIA................................................................................................. 6-7
Work begins on the 4th edition of this classic guidebook to Maine’s national park.
MAINE’S HIGH PEAKS.......................................................................................... 8-11
Conservation efforts in Maine’s north woods aim to conserve vital wild places near the Appalachian Trail.
MAKING A GREENWAY...................................................................................... 12-15
A land trust in southern New Hampshire aims to protect open spaces in a sprawl-threatened region.
BIG SIX................................................................................................................ 16-18
Protecting the Quebecois tradition of producing maple syrup in northern Maine.
P.O. Box 424, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03802
p. 888-705-8274
m. 603-498-1140
nature@ecophotography.com
www.ecophotography.com
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 3

The
Power of
Place
Documentary
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Jerry's film about a controversial
electricity transmission line project
hits New Hampshire theaters
4 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015
Funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013, my first
feature-length documentary, The Power of Place, premiered to a sold out
crowd at the Red River Theatre in Concord, NH back in March. The film has
since screened throughout New Hampshire, in Boston, and most recently
as an official selection of the New Hampshire Film Festival. The film looks
at the potential impacts of a proposed electricity transmission line dubbed
Northern Pass that will traverse 190 miles of New Hampshire, and
features interviews with a diverse collection of New Hampshire residents –
from a third generation dairy farmer, to a veteran NBA forward, to a state
senator – all of whom fear the negative impacts of the project. The Power of
Place can be streamed on-line at Vimeo On Demand: https://vimeo.com/
ondemand/thepowerofplace.

Photo above left: A hill farm in
Stewartstown, New Hampshire, was in the
cross-hairs of the Northern Pass project as
proposed in 2010
Photo above right: An existing high voltage
transmission line in western New
Hampshire
Photo bottom right: This view of the White
Mountains in Bethlehem, New Hampshire
is threatened by Northern Pass
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 5

Discover Acadia
Guide Book
MAINE
Work begins on the 4 th edition
of this classic guidebook to Maine’s
national park.
6 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015
In 2000, my wife Marcy and I wrote our first book, Discover Acadia National Park
for AMC Books. At the time, it was the first guide in the region to provide detailed
trip descriptions for multiple outdoor sports – hiking, biking, sea kayaking, and
quiet water paddling. This sort of ‘combined sports’ guide is now common, but
Discover Acadia still remains one of our most popular books. This summer we
began researching what will be the 4 th edition of the book, to be released in 2017.
This will be the first edition to be printed in color and it will be the first time we’ll
be featuring stand up paddle boarding in the guide. When writing the 1st edition,
we never expected we would have to make room for new sports in the book 15
years later, but we are now looking forward to exploring our favorite waterways
in the park in a new way.

Photo above left: Dawn light washes over
Otter Cliffs
Photo above right: Teenagers walking on
Sand Beach after a day of hiking
Photo bottom right: Sunset as seen from
the granite ledges on Cadillac Mountain
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 7

Conservation
MAINE
Maine’s High
Peaks
8 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015

Conservation
efforts in Maine’s
north woods aim to
protect vital wild
places near the
Appalachian Trail.
Maine’s High Peaks region is home to 8
of Maine’s mountains over 4000 feet,
yet until recently most of the 200,000+
acres in the area were privately owned
and unprotected. More than 30 miles
of the Appalachian Trail traverses
the High Peaks, and the expanse of
working forests in the area are wellknown
for having one of the highest
concentrations of moose in the state.
High elevation spruce-fir forests
provide important breeding habitat
for the threatened Bicknell’s thrush,
and the area's cold water streams and
rivers are home to native brook trout
and Atlantic salmon. In previous
years, I photographed conservation
efforts on Mount Abraham and
Crocker Mountain. This year, I shot
four properties, totaling more than
10,000 acres for The Trust for Public
Land - in Reddington Township, near
Saddleback Mountain, and in the
Perham Stream and Orbeton Stream
valleys.
Photo left: A cow moose near the headwaters of
Perham Stream in Maine
Photo above right: The Appalachian Trail on
Saddleback Mountain
Photo bottom right: Fly-fishing on Orbeton
Stream for native eastern brook trout
Photo next page: Dawn breaks over the Bigelow
Range
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 9

10 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015

DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 11

Making a
Greenway
Conservation
NEW HAMPSHIRE
A land trust in southern New Hampshire aims to protect
open spaces in a sprawl-threatened region.
Southern New Hampshire is one of
the fastest growing areas in northern
New England due to its beautiful open
spaces combined with its proximity to
urban centers like Boston, Manchester,
New Hampshire, and Portland, Maine. Of
course, the fields, forests, hills, and
rivers that make up that open space are
being gobbled up by development. The
last 15 years have seen some great work
done by a variety of organizations that
are striving to protect priority southern
New Hampshire wild spaces, from the
oyster beds of Great Bay, to the
forests surrounding the bay’s biggest
tributary, the federally designated
Wild and Scenic Lamprey River.
Today, the NGO taking the lead in the
region is the Southeast Land Trust of
New Hampshire, which is working in
conjunction with several towns, the
state, and other NGO’s to conserve a
greenway from Great Bay to the 5000+
acres in Pawtuckaway State Park in
Deerfield. This year, I photographed
several land conservation projects for
the land trust totaling close to 3500
acres that will protect key links in the
envisioned greenway.
12 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015

Photo above left: Spring clouds over a
recently conserved hayfield that is part of
more than 1100 acres of contiguous open
space in Epping, NH
Photo above right: A family enjoys a
summer walk in Epping
Photo bottom right: A beaver pond in
Epping
Photo next page: The Lamprey River in
southeastern New Hampshire is one of only
two rivers in the state to be federally
designated as a Wild and Scenic river
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 13

14 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015

DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 15

Storytelling
MAINE
Big Six
16 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015

Protecting the Quebecois tradition
of producing maple syrup in
northern Maine.
In April, I made the trip to Big Six Township, on Maine’s border with Quebec, to
photograph a unique conservation project being undertaken by The Trust for
Public Land. The 25,000 acre township is currently owned by one central Maine
family, who manages most of the property for sustainable timber harvesting.
However, about one third of Big Six has been managed primarily for sugar maple
trees for more than 100 years by a handful of Québécois families in neighboring
Quebec, who lease the trees and tap them every spring. With upwards of
80,000 taps on the property, Big Six syrup producers harvest 3 to 4 percent of
the entire US syrup crop. Harvesting the spring sap run is a tradition that has
been sustaining these families for four generations. To insure this tradition can
continue, The Trust for Public Land is working with the landowner, The US Forest
Service, and other partners, to permanently protect the Big Six “sugarbush” with
a conservation easement. More info about the Big Six conservation efforts can be
found at tpl.org/bigsix.
Photo left: Dawn in the Big 6 sugarbush
Photo top: Jean Francois Faucher checks the sap lines on his family’s sugarbush, looking for lines
trampled by moose and taps pecked out of trees by woodpeckers
Photo bottom right: Rheaume Rodrique stirs boiling maple sap in his sugarhouse in Big 6
Photo next page: Approximately 4% of the US syrup crop is produced in Big 6 and shipped to
bottling plants in these stainless steel barrels
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 17

18 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015

facebook.com/ecophotography
twitter.com/jerrymonkman
linkedin.com/in/jerrymonkman
instagram.com/jerrymonkman
DECEMBER 2015 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 19

P.O. Box 424
Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03802
p. 888-705-8274
m. 603-498-1140
nature@ecophotography.com
www.ecophotography.com
20 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2015