Researchers and practitioners strengthening the region’s coastal protected areas

The Park Institute of America hosted National Park Service Superintendents, regional conservation leaders, and students, research staff, and faculty from North Carolina’s top universities to explore two questions:

How can we make coastal protected areas more resilient?

How can we do better research in these same coastal parks?

Participants highlighted new research, policy, and outreach approaches to coastal resiliency being implemented locally that protected area managers in NC should know more about, as well as those approaches already working for the state’s National Seashores that could transfer to other coastal parks.

The symposium caught the attention of Public Radio for Eastern North Carolina, with Annette Weston interviewing Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. and the Park Institute’s own Tyler Sammis on policy options reviewed during the event.

Participating Organizations

Government agencies

• National Park Service

  • Cape Hatteras National Seashore

  • Cape Lookout National Seashore

  • Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

  • Inventory and Monitoring Division

• North Carolina Division of Coastal Management

  • North Carolina Coastal Reserve

  • Rachel Carson Reserve

• US Geological Survey

  • Wetland & Aquatic Research Center

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

University Faculty and Research Teams

• Duke University

  • Marine Robotics & Remote Sensing Lab (MaRRS)

  • Duke Environmental Law & Policy Clinic

  • Duke University Marine Lab Community Science Initiative

• North Carolina State University

  • North Carolina Sea Grant

  • Center for Marine Sciences and Technology

  • Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative

• East Carolina University

  • Center for Geographic Information Science

• University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

  • Coastal Environmental Change Lab

  • Center for Natural Hazards Resilience

  • Socio-Ecological Change Research Lab (SECR)

• Western Carolina University

  • Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines

• Arizona State University

Regional Stakeholders

• North Carolina 3rd US Congressional District

• Town of Beaufort

• Eastern North Carolina Sentinel Landscape

• North Carolina Coastal Federation

• Southern Environmental Law Center

• National Parks Conservation Association

  • Southeast Regional Team

  • Sun Coast Regional Team

  • Water Team

• Core Sound Museum

Event Sponsors

Threatened Oceanfront Structures

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Clinic Co-Director Michelle Nowlin led a coastal resiliency policy panel that examined policy options for mitigating the impact of threatened oceanfront structures, including those proposed by the Interagency Work Group on Threatened Oceanfront Structures. District Director Lindy Robinson of US Representative Dr. Gregory Murphy’s office joined NC Division of Coastal Management Director Tancred Miller and NC Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis to discuss the Representative’s recently introduced legislation on the treatment of at-risk coastal structures, including the events that catalyzed the bill’s broad support and the bill’s impact on coastal protected area managers if enacted.

UAV Research in Coastal Protected Areas

The Director of Duke's Marine Robotics & Remote Sensing (MaRRS) Lab, Dr. David Johnston, led a discussion on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) use within coastal National Park Service units. Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve Supervisory Biologist Dr. Jamie Womble, USGS Research Ecologist Dr. Kristen Hart, and East Carolina University Assistant Professor Dr. Hannah Sirianni discussed the benefits of drone employment in coastal settings and the tradeoffs between manned and unmanned aircraft in coastal wildlife monitoring programs. The group explored the research limitations of blue drones as well as the impacts that recently proposed legislation prohibiting the use of DJI drones would have on their conservation research efforts.

Coastal Cultural Resource Preservation

The Associate Director of Western Carolina University's Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, Andy Coburn, guided discussion on the challenges that rising seas and eroding shorelines pose for protected area managers charged with the competing tasks of preserving cultural resources while also stewarding natural habitat and ecosystem processes. Using Cape Lookout National Seashore as a case study, Superintendent Jeff West, Arizona State University Associate Professor Dr. Xiao Xiao, and Duke University Marine Lab Community Science Initiative lead Research Scientist Dr. Liz DeMattia explored the roles of storytelling, outreach, education, and children in documenting and preserving the cultural heritage of revered spaces that will likely be lost to the ocean in a single generation.

Event Report (pending)