Nature-Based Resiliency with Shannon Cunniff, EDF

October 4, 2020

We're back and better than ever with another great episode!

Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham welcome Shannon Cunniff to the show and dive deep into the issue of coastal resiliency, risk management, federal flood policy, and why we continue to see imprudent development on high-risk shorelines.  There are few topics on the American shoreline -- or shorelines anywhere in the world -- that are more multi-dimensional.  There are stubborn reasons we can't seem to limit poor development decisions. Shannon knows her way around this subject as well as anyone and offers both a diagnosis of the problem and some reasons for hope.

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.