Episode 7: Coastal Relocation

Update: 2025-09-15

Description

In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward discusses coastal relocation with Emma Gildesgame from The Nature Conservancy, and Leigh Meunier and Lexi Lafferty from CREW (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather). Across the New England coast and the Eastern Seaboard, coastal relocation and retreat are difficult but necessary topics for communities to tackle. This episode provides listeners with an overview of how communities are thinking about relocation, how they’re talking about it, and examples of where it's working.

Brief Bios

Emma Gildesgame, Climate Adaptation Director, The Nature Conservancy https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/our-people/emma-gildesgame/ Emma Gildesgame is a Climate Adaptation Director for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts. Emma is passionate about elevating and empowering communities most often impacted by climate change

Leigh Meunier, Project Manager, CREWhttps://www.climatecrew.org/our_team Leigh Meunier is a Project Manager at Communities Responding to Extreme Weather also known as CREW, which is based in Cambridge. She coordinates community engagement work for a number of CREW projects including the Charles River Flood Model project, Coastal RnR events, and a community participatory research study in downtown Boston.

Lexi Lafferty, Community Engagement Intern, CREWhttps://www.climatecrew.org/our_team Lexi Lafferty is the Community Engagement Intern at CREW. She is pursuing a masters degree in urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts, and has worked on environmental justice and floodplain management and policy research.