National Estuary Week on Florida's Emerald Coast

October 4, 2020

Kick off National Estuary Week with ASPN & three pros.

It's National Estuary Week on the America shoreline so Peter and Tyler take you to the Florida panhandle's beautiful Emerald Coast with its stunning beaches and incredible estuaries. ASP welcomes Jim Trifilio, Director of the Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program; Melinda Gates, Estuary Coalition Manager and Coastal Resource Liaison for Walton County; and, Jim Muller, Bay County RESTORE Act Coordinator. These three adjoining counties are blessed with some of the most unique beaches and bays in America -- crystal clear spring-fed rivers, brilliant white, quartz-sand beaches, and stunning pines and coastal dune lakes.  But, development pressures loom and finding the balance between economic growth and protecting this unique coastal area is the work of these three estuary management officials.  Kick off National Estuary week with ASPN and hear from three pros in the trenches.  Great way to start the week!

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.