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

The RegenNarration Podcast

Chapters
0:00
Introducing The MARSH Project
3:30
Charleston's Rising Waters Challenge
4:25
Meeting at the marsh
8:50
History of the Land and Neighborhood
10:25
Heading off, talking coral regeneration in the Florida Keys
12:30
How the founders met
14:50
The layered context of the place
22:30
Encouraging people to engage with their place
26:45
How the project started & ignited such interest
29:47
At the historical marker they had put in - with block party & re-enactment!
31:50
Some of the spin-offs that are happening already
34:00
Some of the ways the community is running with it
36:40
Checking in with some of the young folk collecting trash
38:20
Mentors that helped shape Joel’s and Blake’s paths
39:25
The most outstanding collecting exemplar (with the family in the mix)
40:54
Back to Blake’s fascinating story
43:12
And Joel’s
46:25
Reconciling the crap on media with change on the ground
49:30
How cross-generational and multi-cultural participation in change is happening here
50:30
What we can do in urban areas (with some of my story from Perth)
53:05
A big shift in play with the joy piece
55:40
Episode Closing and Updates
The RegenNarration Podcast
The Marsh Appreciation and Restoration Society for Happiness: On The MARSH with its founders
Apr 30, 2025 Season 9 Episode 256
Anthony James

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 founders of the project is Joel Caldwell (also in 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 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.

Chapters & 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.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

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