Assateague Voices
29 episodes - English - Latest episode: 8 months ago -Assateague Voices explores Assateague Island and the natural, environmental, and societal influences that shape it. Each episode will tell the story of Assateague Island through the people who live here, work here, play here, care for it year-round, and are in many ways transformed by it--the queen of surf, the king of cottages, devoted camp hosts, even the horse who took one visitor on a pretty amazing spiritual adventure.
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Episodes
Episode 25: Rocket Science 3—Cubes in Space!
November 22, 2023 03:22 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBThis month, Assateague Voices celebrates “NASA November,” with a three-part series on the RockOn and RockSat-C and -X education programs at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. For the third and final episode we highlight Cubes in Space, a RockOn and RockSat partner, and the only global STEM program that gives middle and high school students the opportunity to fly experiments aboard NASA sounding rockets and balloons. I spoke with Amber Agee-DeHart, founder and director of Cubes in Space, on the ...
Episode 24: Rocket Science 2—On a Mission for Good
November 15, 2023 12:20 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBThis month, Assateague Voices celebrates NASA November, with a three-part series on the RockOn and RockSat-C and -X education programs at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. These programs draw higher education students from around the country to Wallops every summer, to fly experiments of their own design aboard Wallops sounding rockets. In this episode, we talk with Jonathan Herberger, a double-major senior at Northern Nazarene University in Idaho. Together with his student team and faculty ad...
Episode 23: Rocket Science 1—Team Rocket (NASA's Version)
November 08, 2023 12:15 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBOne of the most important missions undertaken by NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is STEM engagement—delivering programs and resources that support education in science, technology, engineering, and math. And key to that mission are the RockSat and RockOn programs. These programs draw higher ed students from around the country to Wallops every summer to fly experiments of their own design into space on NASA Wallops Flight Facility sounding rockets. This month on Assateague Voices we celebrate ...
Episode 22: Pony Patrol Rides Again
October 13, 2023 15:30 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBIf you’ve visited the Maryland side of Assateague Island over the last few years you’ve encountered the Pony Patrol. It’s the small, all-volunteer year-round force dedicated to keeping the island’s two dominant invasive species—wild horses and humans—safe from each other. This summer I spoke with two Pony Patrollers—Marcus Urioste, a retired nuclear submarine commander, and Rick Bocian, a retired Baltimore firefighter. We were joined by Liz Davis, then the national seashore’s Chief of Interp...
Episode 21: Spawning Horseshoe Crabs!
September 19, 2023 13:35 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBIn this episode, I speak with Carly Toulan of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. Every spring, working with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, she and her team of volunteers conduct a survey of spawning horseshoe crabs in Maryland's coastal bays. These surveys provide invaluable insights into not only horseshoe crabs but the environment around them. (They also rescue stranded spawning horseshoe crabs.) I met up with Carly at the Oceanic Motel in Ocean City, along the inlet and i...
Assateague Farewell
August 31, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBToday, August 31, 2023, marks Liz Davis's last day as Chief of Interpretation and Education for Assateague Island National Seashore. Liz is retiring from the National Park Service after a 32-year career, all of it spent on Assateague. Liz sat down with me recently and took a look back at a career that spans half the park's existence. We covered a lot of topics, from migrating birds to the pandemic, in a sometimes-emotional conversation that I'm sure barely scratched the surface of a lifet...
Episode 19: Mark 12
July 05, 2023 04:00 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBThe little islands that dot the coastal bays around Assateague Island are among the world’s top spots for colonies of island-nesting birds. These include Black Skimmers — the birds that give Skimmer Island its name — as well various species of terns, from the Common to the Royal. Both Assateague Island and the adjoining Maryland coastal bays region are recognized by BirdLife International as globally Important Bird Areas. They’re two of more than seven hundred global IBAs in the United State...
Episode 18: Snow Hill to Shelltown
October 05, 2021 16:00 - 20 minutes - 28 MBBilly Weiland of Assateague Coastal Trust is a long-time friend of the podcast, and I’m happy to welcome him back for this third visit. We spoke in ACT’s spacious new offices, into which they had just moved. Even with unpacked boxes lining the walls it’s a very impressive space, and we can look forward to some awesome public events there in the future. In this episode, Billy updates us on a few new projects that ACT is undertaking, most importantly a three-year program to extensively monit...
Episode 17: Meghan's Garden
September 28, 2021 16:00 - 33 minutes - 45.5 MBMeghan Rhode, Assateague State Park's assistant manager, hadn't given much thought to pollinator habitats until she was put in charge of one. Since then, she and the habitat have blossomed. In this episode Meghan gives us a fascinating guided tour of the park's pollinator habitat, discusses COVID's impact on park operations, introduces us to a determined osprey, and much, much more. This is the third and final episode in our three-part series on Assateague State Park's shoreline resiliency...
The Biggest Little Program
September 21, 2021 16:00 - 32 minutes - 44.8 MBIn this episode we meet Sandi Smith, marketing and outreach coordinator for The Maryland Coastal Bays Program. MCBP celebrates 25 years of education, restoration, and collaboration this year, and Sandi Smith has been a key part of it for 14 of those years. She jokes that she came here on a surfing scholarship, but she has found much more here than the perfect wave. As she tells it, she found connection and community — two things often cited by people who have found a home here. She’s also m...
Episode 15: Living Shoreline, Living Bay
September 14, 2021 16:00 - 29 minutes - 40.5 MBIn this episode we meet Kevin Smith, Executive Director of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. Kevin takes us through the history of the Assateague State Park shoreline resiliency and wetland enhancement project, the benefits of living shorelines over revetments, connecting upland and shoreline to create a living, thriving coastal habitat, and much more. Oh, and we take a left turn into a topic that I’ve been interested in for a while — the Ocean City Inlet. This episode is part two of a t...
Assateague Video: Walking In
September 08, 2021 02:03I shot this video on my iPhone in early June, as my stepdaughter Haley was setting up her walk-in campsite in Assateague Island National Seashore. I'm not the world's best videographer by any means, but I enjoyed shooting it. The rad music bed ties it all together. Music: "Carried by Waves" by Ambientalism
Assateague Video: The Walk-In
September 04, 2021 17:00 - 4 minutes - 62.6 MB VideoI shot this video on my iPhone in early June, as my stepdaughter Haley was setting up her walk-in campsite in Assateague Island National Seashore. I'm not the world's best videographer by any means, but I enjoyed shooting it. The rad music bed ties it all together.
Episode 14: Dynamic Living Shorelines
August 11, 2021 15:40 - 19 minutes - 27.4 MBIn this episode we meet Chris Becraft of Underwood & Associates. Chris designs and builds ecological restoration projects. Chris fills us in on his Assateague State Park Shoreline Resiliency and Wetland Enhancement Project, dynamic living shorelines, taking the hundred-year view on climate change when designing projects, and much more.
Episode 13: Telescope Night
July 01, 2021 19:36 - 20 minutes - 28.4 MBIn this episode, we go back in time to October, 21, 2017, and visit Telescope Night at Assateague Island National Seashore. We talk with three volunteers from the Delmarva Space Sciences Foundation about the need for dark skies, homemade telescopes, colliding galaxies, and the magic of discovering the cosmos. Telescope Night was part of the Night Sky Summer Series, which was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19. This episode includes real gas music from Jupiter.
Episode 12: My Ever Changing Dunes
June 22, 2021 15:14 - 24 minutes - 33.9 MBAngela Baldwin manages one of my favorite spots on earth — Maryland’s Assateague State Park. ASP is nestled inside Assateague Island National Seashore, at the north end just before the sand barrens. We've camped there in one iteration or another since 2005. In this episode, Angela discusses the challenges of adapting to an ever-changing barrier island while making sure the park fulfills its mission to provide an exceptional park experience to its hundreds of thousand visitors each year.
Episode 11: The Beach Beyond
January 20, 2021 17:00 - 38 minutes - 53.2 MBIn this episode, I talk with Gretchen Knapp of the National Park Service. Gretchen runs the Visitors Center in Tom’s Cove at the Virginia end. Gretchen and Assateague Island have been practically inseparable for most of her adult life. As we say in this episode, it’s not so much that she claimed the island as the island claimed her. In her two and a half decades there, she’s learned and taught what seems like everything there is to know about Assateague, from… well, too much to squeeze into ...
Episode 10: Welcome Visitors
January 13, 2021 17:00 - 19 minutes - 26.3 MBIn this episode, I talk with Kelly Taylor of the National Park Service. Kelly manages the Assateague Island National Seashore Visitors Center in Maryland, which sits at the foot of the Verrazano Bridge that takes visitors from the mainland to the national and state parks. It’s got everything you need to learn about the island’s inhabitants, from the fish in the bay to the birds on the beach, touch tanks, film, books, and much, much more. Recorded May 2018 and produced January 2021.
Episode 9: AIA
January 06, 2021 17:00 - 22 minutes - 30.7 MBIn this episode, we talk with Ashlie Kozlowski, Outreach Coordinator of the Assateague Island Alliance. AIA is the non-profit partner of Assateague Island National Seashore, and it contributes greatly to many of the park’s important programs such as the Wild Horse Management Program. Plus, if you want to name a foal, adopt a horse, practice healing yoga on the beach or ID a horse on your phone, AIA has you covered. Recorded May 2018.
#TrashFreeAssateague
May 17, 2018 20:05 - 17 minutes - 24.2 MBConversation with Billy Weiland of Assateague Coastal Trust about ACT's #TrashFreeAssateague project, Hands Across the Sand, his blog The Marsh, and the most important lesson he's learned from nature (so far). Recorded at the Assateague Island Visitor Center and edited at the Assateague Island Surf Shop, home of the incomparable Sunset sandwich, great coffee, free wifi, and comfy seating. Come out this Saturday, May 19, for Hands Across the Sand/Assateague (Assateague State Park) at 11:30, a...
Episode 7: Beach Voices
January 01, 2018 22:10 - 9 minutes - 12.8 MBAssateague offers solitude and surf, but it also offers something else: community. Day use visitors, Eurovan travelers, Mother's Day celebrants, weddings, proposals, surfers and surf fishers, horse lovers, stargazers, and lots of families of all shapes and sizes: They create a vibrant community of voices that connects us to the island and to each other, and gives the island its unique character. So on this frigid New Year's Day, let's take a warm summer stroll and listen to beach voices. Le...
Episode 6: Native Son
October 05, 2017 23:55 - 18 minutes - 24.9 MBBilly Weiland is a son of Assateague. He grew up here, surfed here, and got his degree from Salisbury U. before leaving for grad school in North Carolina. He’s back home with a newfound appreciation for the island and a passion for preserving and protecting it. Meet the newest staff member of the Assateague Coastal Trust.
Episode 5: Wild Horses
September 19, 2017 23:43 - 9 minutes - 12.3 MBThis week, Chris & Brady of the Maryland Conservation Corps. share some surprising information about Assateague Island’s legendary wild horses. Are they ponies or horses? The answer to this burning question and more! Episode 5, “Wild Horses.” Let’s go!
Episode 4: Tiny Beach Houses
September 05, 2017 23:30 - 16 minutes - 22.2 MBThis week we visit with Ron Harrigan, the man behind Coastal Campers and Assateague Cottages. Ron talks about his lifelong love of tiny houses and surfing, and we hear from a very satisfied customer. Let's go.
Episode 4a: Wait 'til Next Week
August 30, 2017 00:19 - 1 minute - 2.07 MBThis week's episode of Assateague Voices will actually air next week, while I finish up an unrelated audio project. So next week, we’ll talk with Assateague visionary Ron Harrigan. Ron’s Coastal Campers have saved Assateague camping for many of us. Now he’s transforming camping again with his cool, colorful Assateague Cottages. Ron Harrigan, next week on Assateague Voices. Until then, have fun.
Episode 3: Surf's Up, Part 3
August 22, 2017 23:58 - 9 minutes - 13.7 MB"You're actually in the lineup where everybody is, you can sit on top of your board and just drift. And then when there's a wave you paddle and you go. And then it makes life much funner." 7 yr old wahine Charlie Cox explains it all. Surf's Up Part 3.
Episode 2: Surf's Up, Part 2
August 15, 2017 22:58 - 12 minutes - 17.2 MBGet your jersey, grab your board. There's the horn. The first heat's underway. In this episode, we drop in on the Eastern Surfing Association Delmarva District's Summer Series Surf contest on Assateague's North Beach, on July 22nd. The waves are perfect, the sky is cloudless, and the mood among the 75 or so contestants of all ages is pure joy. We'll meet some of those contestants, including an Assateague surfing pioneer, and listen in as the judges score the action. Surf's Up, Part 2.
Surf's Up, Part 1
August 09, 2017 00:01 - 11 minutes - 15.5 MBFrom the moment I started planning this Assateague podcast, I knew I wanted Michelle as my first guest. Michelle is the Assateague surfing world's Big Wahini. She's revolutionized surfing lessons for women and kids, and currently is executive director of the world's largest amateur surfing organization. Not bad. Let's go!
Assateague Voices--Hello There
June 22, 2017 23:38 - 1 minute - 1.87 MBAssateague Voices explores Assateague Island and the natural, environmental, and societal influences that shape it. Each episode will tell the story of Assateague Island through the people who live here, work here, play here, care for it year-round, and are in many ways transformed by it. Subscribe to Assateague Voices today.