From Small Beginnings to Industrial Scale: The Creation of the RGV Reef with Gary Glick

May 7, 2023

Chatting with Friends of Rio Grande Valley Reef.

In this episode of the American Shoreline Podcast, co-hosts Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham sit down with Gary Glick, the President of Friends of Rio Grande Valley Reef, to discuss how the RGV Reef was created. The discussion dives into the grassroots nature of Gary's organization, which is dedicated to building and restoring fish habitat, including nursery reefs, to put fish back in the Gulf of Mexico. Listeners will gain insight into the importance of low, mid, and high relief reefs, as well as the significance of providing graduating sized stepping stones of complex habitat to carry multiple species through their life stages.

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.