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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife artist Terry Pamplin has no problems with production teams coming North to film for their shows. He became upset Saturday, however, when he saw the condition of one of his favourite areas to walk his dogs - the trails near Con Mine.

Terry Pamplin points to some broken branches on one of his favourite trails near Rasmussen Road in the Con Mine area Tuesday. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

Production crews for the CBC drama Arctic Air were back in Yellowknife Nov. 9 filming the sixth episode of the show on the trail near Rasmussen Road, leaving what Pamplin believes to be an unacceptable mess.

"When I first saw it, I thought it was kids goofing around or something like that," said Pamplin.

"There was a screwdriver, a tissue sandwich wrapper, a tarp," he said.

Boulders blocking the path from traffic had also been moved and left displaced from the entrance when he found it Saturday, and there were branches strewn around the area.

Pamplin, who lives in the Con Mine area, said he has no problem with them using the location and that he is happy that productions such as Arctic Air add to the Yellowknife economy, but said they should do a better job of picking up after themselves.

"What did they have to do? Was this a crash scene?" said Pamplin. "I've been here 35 years and I've never broken one or two tree branches."

Crystal Braunwarth, unit publicist for Arctic Air, said the production team's policy is always to leave an area better than when they find it.

"We're pretty conscientious about how we clean up and how we actually work in these environments. Because, you know, we do the same things in Vancouver and it's a beautiful place to work, so we don't want to lose the opportunity," said Braunwarth.

She said the branches had been brought in from another location, by permission as is their policy, and that broken trees in the area were like that when they arrived on scene.

"Because we did bring in our own trees, we're obviously going to lose branches from those, but definitely we're glad it was brought to our attention and we could send people out there and clean it up because we definitely don't want to leave a trail," said Braunwarth.

"We definitely like to know if there's anything out of place, so we appreciate feedback."

According to Mayor Gord Van Tighem, permission to use the site came from Newmont Mining Corporation, which owns the property.

Van Tighem said he has spoken to representatives with Newmont and said they have "no complaints" about the way Arctic Air's production team used the area. He also said he is glad to have productions like Arctic Air filming in Yellowknife and he is pleased with how the production team has been respectful to the areas in which they film.

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