Barrier islands naturally undergo erosion. But in the tiny town of Rodanthe, North Carolina, near Cape Hatteras National Seashore, sea-level rise fueled by climate change has intensified this process, creating difficult and dangerous conditions for the community. Four homes have collapsed into the ocean since February 2022, and the park’s dunes and beaches are washing into the sea, making the boundary between public and private land harder to determine.

Journalist Melanie D.G. Kaplan covers this issue in her new story, “On the Brink,” in National Parks magazine. This episode, host Jennifer Errick asks Kaplan what she learned from her reporting and why the community is starkly divided on how to handle the ongoing crisis.

The Secret Lives of Parks is a production of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Episode 23, A Reporter ‘On the Brink’ at Cape Hatteras, was produced by Jennifer Errick with help from Todd Christopher, Bev Stanton, Linda Coutant and Vanessa Pius.

Special thanks to Rona Marech and Katherine DeGroff.

Original theme music by Chad Fischer.

Read “On the Brink” by Melanie D.G. Kaplan at www.npca.org/onthebrink. Get a year’s subscription to National Parks magazine by visiting www.npca.org/subscribe.

Learn more about this podcast and listen to the rest of our stories at thesecretlivesofparks.org.

For more than a century, the National Parks Conservation Association has been protecting and enhancing America's national parks for present and future generations. With more than 1.6 million members and supporters, NPCA is the nation's only independent, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting national parks.

Learn more and join us at npca.org.