Assateague Voices: Recent Episodes
John Husson
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.
This 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 eve of this year’s RockOn launch. She shared with us the extent of Cubes’s global outreach, the depth and variety of student experimentation, potentially life-saving student research, the importance of grit, and the value of working with the Wallops education team.
Here’s our episode.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE:
Cubes in Space: cubesinspace.com
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility: https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/
Wallops STEM Engagement: https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/stem/
RockSat and RockOn programs: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-rocksat-program/
This 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 advisors, Jonathan is conducting Project Daedelus, which may one day make space safer and life better here on earth. We spoke shortly before the RockSat-X launch with his experiment on board. We discussed performing complex tasks in microgravity, clearing space debris, reusable rocketry, and advancing civilization without destroying it. We also spoke a second time about the challenges that come with rocket science, lessons learned, and the role of the Wallops program in helping young scientists advance.
Here's our episode.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE:
Jonathan Herberger: https://jonathanherberger.com
Project Daedelus: https://jonathanherberger.com/projects
Space Debris
Stuff in Space real-time space debris tracker: https://sky.rogue.space
Kessler Syndrome: https://www.space.com/kessler-syndrome-space-debris
Clean Space Initiative, ESA: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Clean_Space
NASA Orbital Space Debris Program: https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photo-gallery/
Washington Post, "Space Junk is Out of Control": 49gzRF5
Reusable Rocketry
The Rise of Reusable Rocketry: https://www.kdcresource.com/insights/the-rise-of-reusable-rockets-transforming-the-economics-of-space-travel/
Stoke Space: https://www.stokespace.com
Rocket Lab Reusable Rockets: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/launch/reusable-rockets/
Blue Origin New Shepard: https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard
Space-X Falcon 9: https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/
One 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 “NASA November” with episodes focused on RockOn and RockSat-C and -X. We’ll talk with an Idaho university senior whose team is conducting an amazing multi-year experiment aboard RockSat-X, and a Virginia-based collaborative partner whose program lets students nationwide design, research, and test experiments on RockSat-C. And we start right at Wallops, with Dr. Joyce Winterton, Sr. Advisor for Education and Leadership Development.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE:
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility: https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/
Wallops STEM Engagement: https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/stem/
RockSat and RockOn programs: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-rocksat-program/
RockOn 2024 Application: https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/stem/rock-on/
RockOn MSI Faculty Workshop: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-rocksat-program/
RockOn/RockSat-C launch video (courtesy NASA): https://www.youtube.com/live/f2kmaYtW_7s?si=f7E7Z_6WGOXWhxSN
RockSat-X launch video (courtesy NASA): https://www.youtube.com/live/VJGH7GrnEuk?si=C5gyJ0VllbKbPcAo
If 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 Interpretation and head of the Pony Patrol. Our conversation ranged from best ways to get wild horses to move along to the challenges of managing pandemic-driven crowds, and from the dangers that humans and wild horses pose to each other to the continuing equine soap opera that is the island’s Maryland herd.
By the way, you can hear more from Liz reflecting on her Assateague years in Episode 20, “Assateague Farewell.” You can also hear my interview with Kelly Taylor, who gets a big Pony Patrol shout-out here, in Episode 10, “Welcome Visitors.”
AINS Volunteer Page: https://www.nps.gov/asis/getinvolved/volunteer.htm
Washington Post: "Why can't tourists stop messing with wild animals?", June 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/06/16/yellowstone-bison-selfie-gored/
Wall Street Journal: "Volunteer 'Pony Patrol' Wrangles Humans and Protects Wild Horses," photo/video essay, June 4, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/story/volunteer-pony-patrol-wrangles-humans-and-protects-wild-horses-a3255515
Wall Street Journal: "No Pay, Big Bugs and Obnoxious Tourists. But Many Love the Job," May 29, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-park-service-summer-job-wild-horses-tourists-73bb065a (Note: This may be behind a paywall)
In 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 in the shadow of Trimper Rides. It was a surprisingly windy day, and even with a fitted windscreen my microphones still picked up the wind noise you hear in the background. We had an amazing conversation that covered seemingly everything about horseshoe crabs: habitat, spawning, anatomy, mortality, importance of coastal bay islands, and LAL and the role they play in keeping us all safe. It's a rich and enriching journey into the life of Carly's (and mine) favorite living fossil.
Resources, or Down the Rabbit Hole:
Horseshoe Crab survey final reports https://mdcoastalbays.org/the-programs/outreach/horseshoe-crab-surveys/
Video of baby horseshoe crabs (yes, they are adorable) https://fb.watch/mjsMoGOQqW/
Oceanic Motel https://oceanicoc.com/?/oceanic
Horseshoe Crab brochure—a great primer https://mdcoastalbays.org/app/uploads/2023/06/Horseshoe-Crab-Brochure.pdf
Today, 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 lifetime of Assateague experiences.
The 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 States.
But erosion—from rapid sea level rise and increasingly stronger storms caused by climate change—are washing the islands away, and man-made structures like the Ocean City jetty prevent natural processes from building them back up. And as the islands go, so go the birds. Audubon Maryland-DC notes that since 1985, Black Skimmers have declined by more than 95 percent in Maryland. And over the past 16 years Common Tern populations have been reduced by 90 percent and Royal Terns by 78 percent.
The Maryland Coastal Bays Program works year-round to restore the region's coastal bays and islands. As their Science and Restoration Director, Dr. Roman Jesien leads their efforts to restore both the islands themselves and their dwindling bird populations.
In this episode, I join Roman on a drone survey of one such island in Sinepuxent Bay. The island, Mark 12, has seen its nesting area—and nesting colonies—shrink dramatically over the last few years. Aerial surveys like the one Roman was conducting are vital to tracking the island’s erosion and assessing the restoration’s progress. As we traveled we learned the history of island formation in the coastal bays, all about oyster castles, how to land a drone on a bobbing boat deck, and much more.
Episode resources:
Audobon Maryland-DC, "Saving Maryland's Iconic Beach Birds," https://md.audubon.org/news/saving-marylands-iconic-beach-birds Audobon IBA map Assateague Island IBA Site 361 https://gis.audubon.org/portal/apps/dashboards/1742bc47f980490da9c23e23dc4d5e86#site=361 Audobon IBA map Maryland Coastal Bays IBA Site 363 https://gis.audubon.org/portal/apps/dashboards/1742bc47f980490da9c23e23dc4d5e86#site=363 "Climate Change and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge," http://www.landscope.org/article/VA/climate_chincoteague_nwr/1/ Chesapeake Bay Magazine, "Saving Island Birds." Nov. 17, 2022, https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/saving-island-birds/ [Editor’s note: Saving Island Birds won first place in Boating Writers International’s annual writing contest in the Environmental Awareness category.]
Billy 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 monitor the Pocomoke River’s health. The results will help guide policy and practice to improve and maintain the river’s water quality. And they’d love you to lend a hand.
Meghan 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 and wetland enhancement project. You can hear Underwood & Associates's Chris Becraft in part one, our Episode 14, and Maryland Coastal Bays Program's Kevin Smith in part two, our Episode 15.
In 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 made tremendous contributions to Maryland Coastal Bay’s mission.
In this episode, Sandi discusses program outreach, the first Water Keeper, turning COVID-19 into an opportunity for growth, engagement with the local business community, and much more.
In 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 three-part series on the shoreline resiliency project. Part 1, our "Episode 14: Dynamic Living Shorelines," features Chris Becraft of Underwood & Associates. Part 3, our upcoming "Episode 17: Meghan's Garden," will feature Meghan Rhode of Assateague State Park.
I 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
In 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.
In 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.
Angela 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.
In 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 this paragraph. You’ll just have to listen to find out. Recorded May 2018 and produced January 2021.
In 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.
In 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.
Conversation 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, and Trash Free Assateague on Saturday, June 2, at the national park from 9-1. #TrashFreeAssateague. Share it!
Assateague 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. Let's go.
Billy 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.
This 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!
This 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.
This 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.
"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.
Get 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.
From 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 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.