Preview of the 2020 Social Coast Forum: Social Science for Coastal Decision-Making

October 4, 2020

The human dimensions of coastal management are complicated.

On this episode of the American Shoreline Podcast, we preview the 2020 Social Coast Forum coming up in Charleston February 3-6.  Peter and Tyler welcome the organizers, Rebecca Roth, Executive Director of the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association (NERRA), and Lisa Auermuller, President of NERRA and a manager at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR) in Tuckerton, New Jersey.  Partnering with NOAA's Office of Coastal Management, Lisa and Rebecca have led the team to develop the Social Coastal Forum, one of the most forward-looking coastal conferences in America.  Tackling challenges along the American shoreline is ultimately a human problem and the forum address the complex human considerations in coastal management.  Check out this unique and in-depth discussion on the American Shoreline Podcast.

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.