The Marsh Appreciation And Restoration Society For Happiness: On The MARSH With Its Founders The RegenNarration podcast

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The Marsh Appreciation and Restoration Society for Happiness: On The MARSH with its founders

2d ago 57:46

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What to do when your prominent low-lying coastal city starts to go underwater, nigh on weekly on average, already? Charleston, South Carolina, is served by The Post and Courier. It runs a series called the Rising Waters Lab. And a couple of months ago, it featured a story titled, ‘The Southeast’s first urban eco-corridor aims to connect fragmented habitats in Charleston’. Welcome to The MARSH Project.

What started as a personal effort among three friends to revitalise and steward an acre of marsh on the peninsula, has grown into a community-powered juggernaut. And not just to save a city from flooding, or even just to restore its incredible lands and waters. But the complex history of this place means the healing runs deep.

One of the co-founders of the project is Joel Caldwell (also on episode 227 talking about his new film for Patagonia, for which he went on to win the Short Film Award at the prestigious Santa Barbara International Film Festival). It was Judith Schwartz who said we might enjoy meeting Joel - and the two Blakes, Dr Blake Scott and Blake Suárez. When I looked them up online and saw the restoration project they’d instigated was called the Marsh Appreciation and Restoration Society for Happiness, I knew these were guys I did want to meet.

We arrived in Charleston on a day when the community was to gather at the marsh for a clean-up event. We hear from them too, as I wander alongside Joel and Dr Blake to learn about how this juggernaut is happening.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded Sept. 2024.

Title slide: Joel & Dr Blake (pic: AJ).

See more photos on the website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Music:

Galaxy Groove, by Yarin Primak.

Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

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Chapters

1. Introducing The MARSH Project (00:00:00)

2. Charleston's Rising Waters Challenge (00:03:30)

3. Meeting at the marsh (00:04:25)

4. History of the Land and Neighborhood (00:08:50)

5. Heading off, talking coral regeneration in the Florida Keys (00:10:25)

6. How the founders met (00:12:30)

7. The layered context of the place (00:14:50)

8. Encouraging people to engage with their place (00:22:30)

9. How the project started & ignited such interest (00:26:45)

10. At the historical marker they had put in - with block party & re-enactment! (00:29:47)

11. Some of the spin-offs that are happening already (00:31:50)

12. Some of the ways the community is running with it (00:34:00)

13. Checking in with some of the young folk collecting trash (00:36:40)

14. Mentors that helped shape Joel’s and Blake’s paths (00:38:20)

15. The most outstanding collecting exemplar (with the family in the mix) (00:39:25)

16. Back to Blake’s fascinating story (00:40:54)

17. And Joel’s (00:43:12)

18. Reconciling the crap on media with change on the ground (00:46:25)

19. How cross-generational and multi-cultural participation in change is happening here (00:49:30)

20. What we can do in urban areas (with some of my story from Perth) (00:50:30)

21. A big shift in play with the joy piece (00:53:05)

22. Episode Closing and Updates (00:55:40)

371 episodes

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