NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — The Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island had a humble, but appropriate, beginning 50 years ago.
The center’s first home, a small camper trailer at the Narragansett Bay Campus, had washed ashore during a storm in 1971. The CRC team at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography fixed up the trailer and moved it to higher ground.
In the five decades since, the CRC’s reach has gone global with a sustained presence in several countries including Ghana, Madagascar and the Philippines, and an extensive network of partners and alumni.
Over time it hasn’t wavered from its mission of helping communities better care for coastal and marine resources by using science and working with other universities, industry and government to solve complex economic, environmental and social challenges.
The center kicked off the celebration of its 50th anniversary on Thursday with a special program at the Bay Campus.
The program, “Successes and Future of Coastal Management,” highlighted CRC’s domestic and international efforts, honored partners and alumni and presented new awards for coastal management practitioners. Panel discussions explored coastal resilience planning and sustainable seafood.
URI President Marc Parlange congratulated the CRC for its milestone, and said the center is representative of the university’s widespread efforts to ensure science is applied to help people, both in Rhode Island and around the globe.
“I am proud of CRC for guiding coastal communities in the application of science to make the most of their resources,” Parlange said.
URI CRC Director and GSO professor J.P. Walsh said the center is ready to meet new challenges. “CRC is focused not only on applied science and outreach, but on student and workforce development efforts. We are building on our successes and looking to the future,” Walsh said.
The center long ago outgrew its trailer headquarters. Today, it operates from a dedicated building overlooking the Narragansett Bay and employs a staff of more than 20 people based in Rhode Island.
The center is recognized for playing a central role in assisting the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, the state’s coastal administrator. It has also led many large projects in developing nations with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“CRC is not only adept at bringing the best science to coastal management challenges with local to international scope, but it stands apart from other organizations because of CRC’s commitment to helping coastal communities succeed long after a given project concludes,” GSO Dean Paula Bontempi said. “CRC is invaluable to Rhode Island, the United States, and the world because of the leadership, dedication, and care the staff bring to their work. Having this unique group on campus makes it possible to apply the groundbreaking science conducted here to worldwide management challenges with economic and policy impacts. Training and education are also central to what CRC does.”
CRC has raised more than $70 million since 1985 to support programs in coastal resources management on three continents in the developing world as well as in the United States, according to URI.
Its first director, Stephen B. Olsen, developed standardized methods that are now used throughout the world to develop new governance strategies and measure progress given the political, economic, social and ecological conditions of a particular place.
CRC has also produced hundreds of peer reviewed publications, technical reports, best practices manuals, educational CD-ROMs, videos, atlases and training and public outreach programs. It’s known globally for its Summer Institutes.
The current director, Walsh, is one of the organizers of URI’s 58th annual Honors Colloquium, called “Sustaining Our Shores,” which takes place this fall.
The nine-event series will include researchers, writers, policy experts and even a chef as part of the university’s lecture series.
“Rhode Island is the Ocean State and many across the state are thinking about the ocean and the coast and the many aspects of concern,” Walsh said. “URI is also a leader in coastal and ocean research and application of that research, locally and globally. Another important point is that we just entered the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. We thought that this should be an emphasis for the URI Honors Colloquium.”
The first lecture takes place Sept. 21. All free lectures and panel discussions this fall are held Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. at Edwards Hall on the Kingston campus. Attendees must present their university identification cards or their vaccination card to be admitted. Everyone will be required to be masked while in Edwards.
Kelsey Leonard will present the first talk, “Coasts in Crisis: Our Relationship with Rising Seas.” Leonard is a water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, writer and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation. She is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, where her research focuses on Indigenous water justice and its climatic, territorial and governance underpinnings.
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