A
Family, Nature Treks And Mirthful TV
By PENELOPE
OVERTON
Courant Staff Writer January 27 2007
HADDAM -- Scott
Tucker bounds into the dining room of his split-level Higganum house on a recent
Saturday afternoon hauling black swamp muck in a plastic storage tub that had
only hours before held his son's fluffy crib bedding.
Using
plastic spoons and Dixie cups, Tucker sorts through the sludge, hunting for treasure.
For
this amateur naturalist and filmmaker, treasure comes in the form of aquatic sow
bugs. Tucker, who is mid-40ish, scoops up a small, brown crustacean, drops it
into an ice cube tray filled with water and then zooms in with his video camera
for a close-up of its seven pairs of legs.
"Holy mackerel!"
Tucker exclaims. "Absolutely amazing! Absolutely beautiful!"
His
wife, Ava, stops in the middle of brewing herbal tea and, with their 9-month-old
son on one hip, comes to check out Tucker's latest find. Their 6-year-old daughter,
Daphne, calls a halt to a friend's manicure and scours a well-worn field guide
to identify the bug.
WITH
VIDEO CAMERA, boundless enthusiasm and 6-year-old daughter Daphne in tow, Scott
Tucker explores the Ferguson Nature Preserve in Higganum.
He and his family
produce a cable TV program showcasing nature in New England, from sow bugs to
salamanders to the Sound. (PATRICK RAYCRAFT)
This is what
the Tuckers do on their weekends. They explore Haddam wetlands, swim with jellyfish
in Long Island Sound and enjoy moose encounters in New Hampshire, documenting
the adventures on video for Tucker's cable-access TV show, "Expedition New
England."
Tucker and his wife shoot, edit and produce
the show out of a huge walk-in closet in their home. Theyhave made 37 half-hour
episodes so far, with a new one showing every two to three weeks. The show is
broadcast to 600,000 homes in 63 Connecticut towns.
His breathless
appreciation of the local environment, family-friendly approach to exploring the
outdoors and cable TV success landed Tucker a $25,000 grant from the state Department
of Environmental Protection last month to make a film about Long Island Sound.
It was one of 15 Long Island Sound Fund grants awarded this year for a total of
$266,000.
In the Ferguson Nature Preserve in Higganum, Scott Tucker identifies
spotted
wintergreen. (PATRICK RAYCRAFT)
"He's clearly enthusiastic,
animated and definitely not boring to watch, especially for kids," said Kate
Brown, the head of the DEP's Long Island Sound license plate program who was on
the panel that approved the grant. "He sees the world like they do, does
things they would do. He's not your typical, boring adult."
The
DEP has funded a few scripted, formal films about Long Island Sound, but the Tucker
project will be the first DEP-funded film to show a family actually going out
to explore the ocean, diving and snorkeling in the waters off the state's most
popular coastal parks.
The Tucker philosophy fits nicely with
DEP's "No Child Left Inside" campaign, Brown said.
"Daphne's
just a kid, but she has her own wetsuit," Brown said. "How cool is that?"
Daphne
is what drew Tucker out of photography, the artistic genre he had been trained
in while a studio art major at Southern Connecticut State University, and into
film. Buying a video camera was one of the first things he did when he found out
his wife was pregnant.
Having a young child also propelled
Tucker back into the woods for the first time since his early childhood. He and
his wife would strap the baby into a backpack and explore Connecticut. Tucker
rediscovered the joy of nature through Daphne's awestruck eyes.
"People
think you have to go to Costa Rica, Australia or Africa to find amazing wildlife,
but that's a bunch of hooey," Tucker said. "There are animals right
here in New England that'll blow your mind. If you don't believe me, just ask
a kid. Ask Daphne. She'll tell you."
Daphne has spent
much of her young life exploring the outdoors at her father's side. They have
snorkeled the Sound together, with Daphne floating just above his back, and knelt
side by side peering into countless vernal pools. They hike, climb and laugh together.
This
has turned Daphne into a precocious, inquisitive young naturalist. She could identify
milk snakes at the tender age of 2. It was Daphne who spotted the moth that a
biologist later confirmed was native to Nicaragua. She lectures her school teachers
on amphibians.
This miniskirted pixie is the heart and soul
of "Expedition New England." She plays a big role in almost every episode,
with Tucker training his camera on her every move and discovery. She now shares
the stage with her baby brother, Race.
Tucker is more enthusiastic
and childlike than Daphne or Race. On a recent visit to the Ferguson Nature Preserve,
a five-minute drive from his house, Tucker did not hesitate to drop to his knees
to film a snail or plunge into an icy stream to scoop muck.
He
actually did a little dance when a friend discovered a marbled salamander in the
mud.
Tucker applies the same up-close-and-personal philosophy
to his frequent narrative turns. He will hold the camera inches from his face,
sometimes from above, and rave about the animal he is about to show or talk about
his feelings during a wildlife encounter.
A viewer of "Expedition
New England" sees a lot of Tucker's nostrils.
"Some
people may think I'm a narcissistic freak, but I don't care," Tucker said.
"I want the viewer to feel like they're right there, to feel what I feel.
That's the point. So what if people see a zit? I want them to see I'm just like
them. If I can do this, if I can experience nature, so can you."
Tucker
is a diehard naturalist, serving on his local conservation commission and as vice
president of the state chapter of the American Herpetologist League, but he's
not a scientist. A builder by trade, he spends just as much time consulting experts
as he does filming.
He does all this while working 50 to 60
hours a week in his family's contracting business. Most of his work is done on
weekends, late at night and on the random trip to the store, when Tucker is just
as likely to come back with footage of a snapping turtle as he is a carton of
milk.
He estimates that he has sunk tens of thousands of dollars
into his hobby.
In the coming months, Tucker plans to film
the live birth of a North American red wolf at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport
and Cape Cod Stranding Network's attempt to rescue stranded marine mammals. And
then, of course, there's the Sound project.
Tucker plans to
charter a boat to scuba dive in the Sound, to take his underwater camera under
the waves off Sherwood Island, Rocky Neck and Hammonasset Beach state parks to
show the animals that he and Daphne encounter in Connecticut's piece of the Atlantic.
He
will broadcast the 30-minute Long Island Sound film on his show and distribute
DVD copies of it to every sixth-grade science class in Connecticut by Thanksgiving,
he said. A lesson plan and list of recommended activities will accompany the DVD.
Tucker
hopes the Long Island Sound film will put his show on the map, help him build
a market audience of a million viewers, and start that long journey to the big
time - a cable show that can pay for itself on a well-known channel such as Animal
Planet.
"I think I'll make it, but even if I don't, I'll
have had a wild ride," Tucker said. "This is definitely one of those
times when it's all about the trip and who you're traveling with, not the destination.
The scenery is going to knock your socks off."
Contact
Penelope Overton at poverton@courant.com.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant
