Places, Volume 7: On Assignment with Jerry Monkman. Spring, 2022.

On Assignment with Jerry Monkman 

KATAHDIN WOODS & 

WATERS 

A winter assignment in Maine’s 

remote National Monument. 

IRON OX FARM 

The start of a new documentary about 

an innovative collaboration between a 

land trust and young farmers. 

A DRONE’S VIEW OF 

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 

From Maine to Rhode Island. 

MAINE’S KENNEBEC 

VALLEY 

A multi-season tourism photo project. 

CONSERVATION VIDEOS 

Restoring sea run fish passage and 

rewilding the Northeast’s forests.

Snowboarders at Quarry Road Trails in Maine’s Kennebec Valley. 

2 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY SPRING 2022

From Jerry 

We’ve all seen a lot of change around us in the last few years. That’s 

definitely been the case in my home life as Marcy and I have gone from 

sharing our house with two energetic teenagers to being empty-nesters. 

We’re now staring at a strange, quiet, freedom we haven’t enjoyed for 

twenty years. I’m not sure how this will impact my photography, but I 

expect I’ll have a little more space in my head for new creative projects this 

year! 

On the Cover: Lenticular clouds at 

dawn above Maine’s Katahdin Woods 

and Waters National Monument. 

This issue of Places looks at some of the great projects I had the fortune 

to work on during the last year. From fun tourism shoots where I got to 

work on skis and snowshoes or from boats and snowmobiles, to more 

serious endeavors looking at the perils of how we source our energy to 

the challenges of restoring habitat for sea run fish, I was challenged by 

new shooting situations and learned a ton of new information about our 

natural systems. 

In this issue, I’ve added links to the video projects mentioned in the articles, 

so if you’re reading this on-line, you’ll be able to click straight through to 

the videos. 

Be well, stay safe, and enjoy the outdoors! 

-Jerry 

Table of Contents 

A winter journey to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.............4-9 

Shot on assingment for National Parks Magazine. 

Iron Ox Farm....................................................................................................... 10-13 

See the trailer for the new documentary I’m filming about a land trust’s collaboration with young farmers. 

A Drone’s View of Environmental Issues.......................................................... 14-17 

Aerial views of a power corridor, oil tanks, and algae blooms. 

Exploring Maine’s Kennebec Valley.................................................................. 18-23 

Enjoying Maine in all seasons. 

Short Films.........................................................................................................24-26 

Three short films about dams, fish, and rewilding, shot in Maine for conservation clients. 

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

603-498-1140 

jerry@ecophotography.com 

www.ecophotography.com 

SPRING 2022 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 3

Editorial Shoot 

MAINE 

Katahdin Woods and 

Waters in Winter 


Maine’s newest National Monument 

offers remote winter adventure. 

In August 2016, President Obama 

designated the 87,500 acres east 

of Maine’s Baxter State Park as 

Katahdin Woods and Waters National 

Monument. The land making up 

the monument was gifted to the 

government by Roxanne Quimby, 

a philanthropist who had spent the 

better part of three decades acquiring 

this remote, undeveloped land, 

primarily from timber management 

companies, with the dream of creating 

a national park. The land includes the 

rugged foothills east of Baxter State 

Park and the wild forests bordering 

the free-running rapids of the East 

Branch of the Penobscot River. 

This was my second winter visit to 

the park, this time on assignment for 

National Parks Magazine. My friend 

Steve and I spent four days crosscountry 

skiing, snowshoeing, and 

snowmobiling in what is truly a wild 

winter wonderland. We stayed at 

private cabins just outside the park 

as the park’s cabins were closed due 

to Covid-19. We really enjoyed the 

skiing along the East Branch, which is 

some of the best backcountry nordic 

skiing in New England. We also got to 

experience most of the weather a New 

England winter has to offer, from 

bluebird skies to beautiful large-flake 

snowfall to 40-below wind chills. 


Ice jams on the East Branch of the 

Penobscot River. 


Steve braves minus 40-degree wind chills so I can get the shot. 

Snow falls on canoes at Bowlin Camps on the eastern border of the National Monument. 



SPRING 2022 ECOPHOTOGRAPHY 9 

The groomed trails next to the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

Documentary 

MASSACHUSETTS 

IRON OX FARM 


Conserving a historic farm for 

a new generation of farmers. 

A young couple loves the food scene and decides they want to start a farm 

to provide quality organic food to local residents and restaurants. They also 

have a strong bond to their family and want to stay close by, but they happen 

to live north of Boston, home to some of the most expensive real estate in the 

US. Too expensive to buy and farm at a profit. 

Nearby, a land trust acquires a historic farm once owned by General George 

Patton with the understanding that the property will remain in farming. But 

the land trust isn’t in the farming business. 

In the late summer of 2021, my colleague Ryan Smith (Rooted in Light Media) 

and I began work on filming a documentary for the Essex County Greenbelt 

Association, the above-mentioned land trust in Massachusett’s Essex 

County. Earlier in the year, they had given a 99-year land lease on Green 

Meadows Farm to Stacey Apple and Alex Cecchinelli who rechristened the 

farm Iron Ox Farm. We’re following their story through this year and plan 

to release our film in 2023. A sneak peak trailer is available now on Vimeo: 

https://vimeo.com/655385832. 


Kale and cabbage ready to harvest during Iron Ox Farm’s first 

year at the former Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, MA. 



Drone Views 

NEW ENGLAND 

Environmental Photo 

Projects 


Construction begins on the CMP corridor in Maine’s 

Boundary Mountains. 


Aerial views of environmental issues across New England 

Drones have become an important part of my toolbag in 

the last five years or so. The aerial perspective is one I 

include on probably three quarters of my projects now 

and it is so much less time-consuming and affordable 

than shooting from traditional aircraft. 

The opening spread of this article shows the beginning 

stages of forest clearing for an electricity transmission 

line in Maine that was being protested by many 

environmental groups in the state. I shot this photo and 

video footage as part of a campaign to convince voters 

to shut down construction in a ballot initiative (which 

passed in November). 

Also last year I shot several issues for the Conservation 

Law Foundation. I shot petroluem tanks in several 

locations where corporations are either running afoul 

of clean air and water regulations or failing to take 

steps to secure facilities from rising seas and potential 

damage from storm surges. I also captured aerial views 

of concerning algae blooms caused by pollution in 

waterways on Cape Cod. 


Above left: Petroleum tanks adjacent 

to Boston Harbor and a residential 

neighborhood in Quincy, MA. 

Top and middle right: A hurricane 

wall built under the I-195 bridge 

protects downtown Providence, RI, 

which is particulary vulnerable to 

storm surge flooding. 

Lower right: Algae mats in Prince 

Cove in Marston Mills, MA on Cape 

Cod. 


Exploring Maine’s 

Kennebec Valley 

Tourism 

MAINE 

Enjoying Maine in All Seasons 

Maine’s a big state by New England standards, and I’ve 

been lucky to shoot many corners of the place over the 

last 30 years. I’ve yet to find a spot that isn’t a worthy 

vacation destination and this project for Thalo Blue 

Destination Marketing and Kennebec Valley Tourism 

Council definitely kept that streak intact. 

For this shoot, our goal was to spend a day or so in each 

season photographing people enjoying the cultural 

and recreation opportunities in the Kennebec Valley, 

which runs north-south from near Maine’s border 

with Quebec to the coast just beyond the state’s capitol 

district. We manged to capture camping, fishing, boating, 

snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, craftbeer 

drinking and more. 

I enjoyed most of these activities vicariously through the 

lens of my camera, with probably my most fun day being 

our winter shoot at Quarry Trails in Waterville where 

I wore skis or snowshoes all day. Actually, paddling a 

kayak on the Kennebec south of Skowhegan in summer 

was pretty great too. And ok, I also really liked climbing a 

fire tower with fall views of a distant Mount Washington 

followed by sampling the product at Grateful Grain 

Brewing Co. 


Above left: Fat-tire biking at Quarry 

Road Trails in Waterville. 

Top right: A Maine Guide works with 

a young client on the Kennebec River 

near Skowhegan. 

Middle right: A couple enjoys a flight 

of beer at Grateful Grain Brewing Co. 

in Monmouth. 

Lower right: A young snowshoer at 

Quarry Road Trails in Waterville. 


Floating on a lazy summer afternoon on the Kennebec River in Skowhegan. 


It’s always fun to find a rope swing on a summer paddling trip. Kennebec River. 

Morning fishing from just outside the door of the camper. Skowhegan. 


Ending the day in a good way at Quarry Road Trails in Waterville. 



Short Films 

Maine 

Restoring Wildlands and 

Sea Run Fish 


A dam in Waterville, Maine, as seen in Free the Kennebec. 

(https://vimeo.com/569120983) 

Three conservation video projects in Maine 

In 2021, I spent almost as much time 

pressing record as I did shooting 

stills. During the spring and summer, 

Ryan Smith and I spent about a week 

shooting in the Kennebec River 

valley for two separate sea run fish 

restoration stories. 

The first became Keystone: Voices 

for the Little Fish, an 11-minute short 

film featuring the volunteers who run 

Upstream, an organization working 

to restore the river herring run on 

Cobbossee Stream in Gardiner. The 

film has already screened at three 

film festivals this year and filming 

introduced us to the incredible site 

of seeing thousands of fish trying to 

find their way up the streams in the 

Kennebec Watershed. 

For our second fish story (Free the 

Kennebec) we actually shot a series 

of videos for the Natural Resources 

Council of Maine who are working with 

several other organizations to create 

fish passage past four dams on the 

Kennebec River that are preventing 

federally endangered Atlanitc Salmon 

from reaching their spawing grounds. 

In October, I produced a video for 

the Northeast Wilderness Trust that 

explains their Wildlands Partnership 

program. We shot the video in 

Hancock, Maine during peak foliage 

and ended with some amazing drone 

footage like that seen in the still photo 

to the left. You can see the whole video 

here: https://vimeo.com/641533062. 


River Herring as seen in a frame grab from Keystone: Voices for the Little Fish. 


We filmed the Wildnads Partnership video in the Hancock Community Forest. 



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 7: On Assignment with Jerry Monkman. Spring, 2022.

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