Dr. Christine B. Feurt, Coastal Training Program Director at the Wells Reserve in Maine

October 4, 2020

Take a tour of the Wells Estuarine Reserve with a real Pro!

Live from the Social Coast Forum 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina, Peter Ravella, Tyler Buckingham, and Bill O'Beirne sit down with Dr. Christine B. Feurt, the Coastal Training Director for the Wells National Estuary Research Reserve and the Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at the University of New England. Her work in the Gulf of Maine watershed focuses on community based ecosystem management. Chris facilitates the creation of collaborative knowledge networks consisting of local, state, and federal government officials, community based conservation groups, non-profit environmental groups, and university students. These networks facilitate the dissemination of scientific information, the sharing of expertise, and the identification and prioritization of management actions directed at protecting water resources.

Show Transcription
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Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.