Skip Stiles of Wetlands Watch on New Tools for Managed Retreat

October 4, 2020

Making room for wetlands as sea levels rise: A How To

Live from the Social Coast Forum 2020, Peter, Tyler, and Bill sit down with Skip Stiles,  Executive Director of Wetlands Watch, a statewide nonprofit environmental group based in Norfolk, VA.  Sea levels in Norfolk are rising faster than any other place on the American shoreline.  Well beyond Clapper Rails and Spartina, Wetlands Watch is engaged in the difficult issue of managed retreat at the neighborhood level, working cooperatively with land owners to save property values but relocate structures that are soon to be inundated.  Turns out protecting wetlands as sea levels rise means creating space for these natural systems to migrate landward.  It's a big land management issue requiring specialized skills in property transactions, finance, law and building deep roots of trust in the community.  Skip and his team are at the forefront of developing this new tool kit.  Check it out.  ASPN:  Insight and Intelligence for Thriving Shorelines.

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.