{"id":310,"date":"2010-09-21T15:44:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T15:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vandfam.net\/dev\/wordpressmu\/college\/?p=310"},"modified":"2010-09-21T15:44:53","modified_gmt":"2010-09-21T15:44:53","slug":"hand-heart-and-soul-todd-miller-protects-the-states-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=310","title":{"rendered":"Hand, Heart and Soul: Todd Miller protects the state’s coast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Seawater may not literally be running through his veins, but North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF) founder and executive director Todd Miller considers the coast part of his DNA.<\/p>\n

Growing up in the 1950s and \u201960s in the community of Ocean, he and his two sisters seized joyful hours swimming, sailing, fishing, shrimping, catching crabs and exploring natural areas of Bogue Banks. Meanwhile, real estate speculators were dreaming up new uses for the land and waterways of Carteret County. <\/strong><\/p>\n

UNC exposed Miller (BA urban studies\u201978, MA city and regional planning \u201980), to environmental management and social entrepreneurship, knowledge that would come in handy for his life\u2019s work of protecting the coast from excessive development.<\/p>\n

He created the coastal federation in 1982, after seeing how citizen groups throughout the country were effectively protecting their local environments. Twenty-eight years later, he is still motivated by knowing, \u201cIf I fail in my job, I lose what I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s mission: Involve North Carolinians in coastal stewardship through education, advocacy, and habitat preservation and restoration. If he fails, citizens will lose what they love and need: \u00a0the sanctity, natural beauty and productivity of our coast. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEnvironmental protection has no shortcuts,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThe federation empowers ordinary people working together as a \u2018community\u2019 to accomplish extraordinary things.\u201d Under his leadership, the NCCF story is documented in 50 restoration projects encompassing over 40,000 acres of estuaries and more than 8,500 acres of land acquired for preservation.<\/p>\n

Miller received the Old North State Award in 2007 and the Southern Environmental Law Center\u2019s Southern Environmental Leadership Award in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cTodd Miller is the hand, heart and soul of the Carolina coastal conservation movement,\u201d said David R. Godschalk, Stephen Baxter Professor Emeritus in UNC\u2019s department of city and regional planning. \u201cWithout Todd to lead the fight, the coast would be left to the tender mercies of speculators, developers and engineers determined to sell it, overbuild it and then ring it with seawalls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colleague Raymond Burby, professor emeritus, added, \u201cMiller\u2019s dedication is legendary in setting a national example of what can be accomplished by grassroots groups that stay true to their missions. NCCF\u2019s multifaceted programs leave no stone unturned to preserve and enhance coastal resources through elementary school lessons, field trips and hands-on experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Earth Day 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration honored Miller, the federation and its partners (N.C. Marine Fisheries Division, NC State University, N.C. Sea Grant and UNC-Wilmington) with the Excellence in Restoration Award, praising decades of dedicated work in restoring the state\u2019s degraded coastal habitats. Thanks to a $5 million federal Recovery Act grant, the Oyster Restoration Project, led by local residents in the Pamlico Sound and around Coastal Carolina, rebuilt 50 acres of oyster reefs where each mature oyster can filter pollutants up to 50 gallons a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese accomplishments,\u201d said Miller, \u201cmerely skim the surface (no pun intended) of what needs to be done: working with farmers on large-scale hydrologic restoration of farm land, advocating enforcing coastal laws and regulations, and teaching students how to restore marshes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live where we work,\u201d noted Miller. \u201cThe project impacts our economy by employing truckers, quarry workers, barge operators, tugboat captains, scientists and fisheries\u2019 technicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bland Simpson is author of The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country<\/em> and UNC\u2019s Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor of English and Creative Writing. He calls Miller, who invited Simpson onto the NCCF board in 2001, \u201cone of the most creative and visionary people working in environmental protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis leadership in protecting our 300-plus miles of seacoast and 5,000 miles of interior, estuarine shorelines is exemplary and inspirational,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cAs North Carolinians, we have a practical and a moral duty to make our many waters living models to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Editor’s note: This story by JB Shelton appeared in the fall ’10 issue of<\/em> Carolina Arts\u00a0& Sciences magazine.<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n

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