The Joy of Filming the Unexpected: Nature Videos in Vermont

The Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) is unique in the northeastern U.S. for being “the only regional land trust that can promise every acre we protect will be an old-growth forest of tomorrow.” To further this mission, NEWT recently hired Reel Quest Films to produce nature videos for each of their three different preserves. The goal of the project was to highlight their beauty and help raise funds for their protection.

Fog blankets a glade of northern hardwoods at the Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve in Woodbury, Vt.

Unexpected Backcountry

In August 2022, Reel Quest Films filmed two of the three preserves and will return in October 2022 to film the third. These videos are different from recent projects we’ve worked on in that there is no voice-over or interviews and there is very little in the way of graphics and captions. They are simply clips of nature’s beauty set to music. Having worked on close to 200 land conservation projects over Jerry’s 30-year career, he is surprised there are still places worth protecting in New England that have large expanses of older forests with big trees. The NEWT properties, both in Vermont, fit that mold.

One surprise while filming this project was this big beaver Jerry encountered swimming in a remote pond:

The beaver swam right up to him and proceeded to hiss and charge. He stopped filming at that point! Once he was firmly hidden behind some shrubbery, the angry, yet curious, critter climbed all over his camera bag, tasting a buckle or two and marking it as their territory. It was a very unexpected encounter!

Here’s the first two of the three videos that NEWT will be releasing this fall. They feature their brand new Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary in Ryegate, VT, and he largest non-governmental wilderness area in Vermont, The Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve.



In October 2021, Reel Quest Films produced a video for NEWT’s Wildland’s Partnership program. You can see that video here:

Be sure to check out NEWT’s website to see all of the amazing work they are doing throughout the Northeast. To read about another recent conservation film project Reel Quest Films produced, check out this post about their trip to northwest Connecticut.