Memorial Day Summer Kickoff: Part 2

October 4, 2020

Happy Memorial Day from ASPN!

Happy Memorial Day! We hope that everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend. Enjoy Part 2 of our Memorial Day Summer Kickoff. On this episode, we check in on Manasota Key, Florida where a quaint, fold Florida community is transitioning to an engineered beach for the first time. Then we go to South Padre Island to speak with the frontrunner in the town's mayoral election, Darla Jone. Next, its Andra Belknap in Ojai, California where we talk about special beach memories that encapsulate Southern California beach culture. Read her blog at AndraBelknap.com. We conclude the show in Camden, Maine to check in with Paul Leper, an environmental consultant and part-time lobsterman.

Show Transcription
This transcription was generated by a computer. Please excuse any errors.
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.