N.C. waterfowl film from site of OLF wins awards

WASHINGTON COUNTY, N.C.

A North Carolina couple has won 25 awards with films of waterfowl on Lake Mattamuskeet and Pungo Lake, the site used to help defeat plans to build a Navy airfield.

Emily and Blake Scott of STRS Productions, based in Washington, N.C., have produced two of six films on national wildlife refuges in North Carolina - one at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge and another at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, which features Pungo Lake in Washington County.

When the Navy named a site in Washington County near Pungo Lake for an outlying landing field, citizen and environmental groups led an opposition effort of more than four years, including lawsuits, with waterfowl at the heart of the argument.

Thousands of snow geese, swans and ducks winter on Pungo Lake. Opponents contended that jets would disturb the waterfowl and waterfowl would cause jets to crash.

Meanwhile, in the late fall of 2006, Emily Scott was filming flocks of snow geese when a Navy helicopter hovered just over Pungo Lake. Her film had nothing to do with the airfield battle, she said.

Suddenly, thousands of geese took flight, nearly enveloping the helicopter.

"I thought it was going down," she said.

Scott sent that portion of her film to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge manager. She hasn't seen Navy aircraft there since.

In early 2008, the Navy announced it would not build an airfield in Washington County, but it named five new potential sites - three in Virginia and two in North Carolina, including one each in Gates and Camden counties.

Camden officials who oppose an airfield are also trying to show that snow geese and other waterfowl winter there.

The Scotts are producing two sets of films - the "Winter Day" series for the Mattamuskeet Foundation and the "Refuge" series.

"A Winter Day - Lake Mattamuskeet" and "A Winter Day - Pungo Lake" feature flocks of waterfowl and wildlife to music without narration.

The Pungo Lake film won 15 international awards in independent film competitions, including a platinum-level 2008 Ava Award and a bronze in the nature category of the 2009 Telly awards.

The Mattamuskeet film won 10 honors.

Other "Winter Day" films are in the works, said Lewis Forrest Jr., executive director of the Mattamuskeet Foundation.

Before sponsoring the films, Forrest asked biologists, hunters and family members to watch an unedited segment.

"Everybody was amazed at how phenomenal it was," he said.

The Scotts did not bait or use blinds but filmed as if they were visitors, Emily Scott said.

"We wanted them where people could just sit back and watch and listen," she said. "If it takes me 16 trips down there to get it, then that's what I will do."

In the other series, STRS Productions plans to film six national wildlife refuges in North Carolina. "Refuge-Mattamuskeet" and "Refuge-Pocosin Lakes" are finished.

UNC-TV has already aired "Refuge-Mattamuskeet" and plans to air it again, Scott said. The "Refuge" series includes narration.

In addition, work has begun on a film about Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County and Swan quarter National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde County.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com