Hello from Redwood Planet Media

[Alan Peterson]

I've been casually reading this forum for a bit, and thought that this would be a good place to introduce myself and my work.

For the past several months, I've been working with a handful of people to launch an educational media nonprofit called Redwood Planet Media. Our mission is to further public understanding of natural history, ecology, sociology and human welfare in Northern California and beyond through documentary film, photography and online journalism. Located in Humboldt County, we're currently an all-volunteer effort, but we're hoping to transition to a professional workforce over the next year as we develop our fundraising, grant-writing and general operating revenue.

I'm serving as President of the company, and come from a background in filmmaking and social work. Since moving to Humboldt County three years ago, I've been working as a video/animation/multimedia jack of all trades while filming and photographing the local wildlife in my own time. Our other volunteers and directors include people who work in fine arts, education, environmental/tribal law, bird rescue, audio engineering and field guide illustration. We're hoping to recruit people from ecologically-focused science and engineering backgrounds, so if this is you and you'd like to be a part of what we're doing, drop us a line.

Currently, we're focused on launching a documentary project about the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary called Fecotopia: From Water Closet to Watershed


Arcata Marsh is a groundbreaking wastewater treatment plant that uses native plants and microorganisms to break down and filter sewage. Over the years, it has become a home for hundreds of animal species, and stands as a shining example of what ecologically-friendly design can do for both wildlife and the community. While filming a feature-length documentary about the marsh system as a whole, we'll be releasing a series of documentary shorts about the animals it hosts. The first of these, Into the Wind: The White-tailed Kites of the Redwood Coast, which follows a pair of kites and the two children they raised this year, has just entered post-production. To stay up to date on our work, see photos and video from the redwood coast, read regional news roundups and more, follow us on our website or Facebook. If you'd like to support what we're doing, we currently have an Indiegogo campaign running to help cover the cost of storage and post-production for our initial documentary shorts.

In addition to introducing Redwood Planet Media to the community here, I'd also like this thread to be a place for people to introduce themselves and their work to us. We like to share what others are working on in the region, whether it's photography, video, academic studies or other endeavors within our fields of focus. Feel free to post in this thread or contact us at info@redwoodplanet.org if you have a portfolio, video/photo feed, article or study that fits in with what we do. For practical reasons, we're limiting our scope to covering Northern California for the time being, but don't let that stop you from bringing up content from outside the region that ties in to any of our projects.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about the company or any of our work, so ask away if you're curious.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great project Alan and it is nice to see people taking action for conservation. The video was coo as well. I wish you luck in the growth of this mission and will keep an eye on the thread

[Christopher Miller]

Welcome to BPN, Alan, and thanks for sharing your work. That all sounds very interesting.

[Alan Peterson]

Thanks, Cheryl and Christopher.

I should also add that I'm happy to answer people's questions about video production and post-production. Redwood Planet Media is going to be working on offering video education seminars to the community next year, and I'm happy to share what I know online as well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Alan, welcome to BPN!! Awesome video, love to see success stories like that.

[gail bisson]

I will keep an eye out for more from you in the future. Sounds like a great place.
gail