JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Dozens of oyster beds are being placed along the Trout River, starting at Riverview Park on Jacksonville’s Northside, as part of a new $20,000 grant to improve the water quality in Northeast Florida.
Oysters are known to help clean waterways of pollution.
Several organizations are working to prevent pollution in local water because they know many people fish, boat and just spend time on the water, and they want to make sure they have healthier experiences.
Longtime friends Marshiray Wellington and Felecia Mitchell are both from the city’s Northside and established the Riverview Collective Community Organization, also called RCCO.
They are in the process of installing vertical oyster gardens along the pier at Riverview Park in the Trout River.
At least 40 of those gardens will line the river over time.
“There is a certain way that you want the oysters to appear in the water because the goal is to mimic as natural of a process as possible,” said Wellington, who is RCCO’s chairwoman.
The gardens are composed of oyster shells that are strategically attached to a wire to attract baby oysters. Wellington and Mitchell say the goal is to grow the oyster population.
“The plan is to align those along the coast so that it helps with erosion,” Wellington said. “It starts to protect our coastline. We are putting those out to help establish the reef. What is really going to help the reef to grow and become a healthy oyster reef is when more oysters come over to add to the structures that we are putting in place right now.”
Oysters are sometimes called “filter-feeders” as they can help cleanse waterways of pollutants.
“They are a protectant for our natural grasses,” Wellington said. “They help to protect our coastline, they are a great habitat for marine life, and then they are a feeder for filtering. One adult oyster filters 50 gallons of water a day.”
According to RCCO’s Instagram account, the organization’s mission is to provide educational resources while advocating for a healthier and more sustainable environment for the community.
Wellington and Mitchell say some of that education will be about the current oyster restoration efforts.
“When you have millions of oysters doing their job daily, one oyster is filtering that much water a day, just imagine the impact it can have if we can get the entire city of Jacksonville to join us in this effort,” Wellington said.
“[We want people] to see the importance of our waterway conservation, waterway and oysters and flood prevention,” said Mitchell, who is RCCO’s vice chairwoman. “[It is] healthier for our marine life and for us to enjoy what we eat from out of the waters.”
The project was more than three years in the making.
John November, the executive director of the Public Trust for Conservation -- a water quality watchdog organization -- said that when the group notices that an industrial facility’s water quality is out of compliance with its permit, the trust brings legal actions for violations of the Clean Water Act in order to bring that facility back into compliance to prevent further pollution.
“Instead of paying penalties to the federal government, we ask that they pay environmental benefit payments into the Northeast Florida Environmental Conservation Fund housed at the Community Foundation,” November said. “Those funds are then used to make a difference in the local community to benefit water quality projects.”
November said some of those payments or settlements from one industrial facility, which the Public Trust does not publicly identify as a part of the agreement, have resulted in the very first grant being awarded to RCCO for the oyster bed restoration project.
“It is an opportunity to really establish great water quality benefits and short stabilization,” November said. “It is especially meaningful because the project is happening in the same community where the industrial pollution was taking place. Unfortunately, that pollution often times includes heavy metals that are carcinogenic or cancer-causing. It is especially meaningful to try to give back right there where the impacts are occurring.”
Wellington and Mitchell say that although the hub for the project is at Riverview Park, they hope their efforts encourage other communities to do the same.
April 12 is going to be a big day at Riverview Park as the very first Oyster Fest is happening there from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wellington and Mitchell said they want it to be a day of family fun, but also of education about the oyster bed restoration project.
As a prelude to the festival, there will be yoga in the park followed by a community meeting inside the Riverview Senior Center at 10 a.m. The senior center is on the park’s property.
“We’re going to have other educational activities out here as well,” Mitchell said. “We are going to have a DJ, a bounce house, plenty of music, lots of fun. Inside the [senior] center, we are going to have wealth-building workshops, sponsored by the First Coast Association of Realtist.”
Mitchell said the workshops are related to budgeting, saving, estate planning, and the homebuying process.
“It is a family event for the community,” she said. “We want people to connect with nature, mind, body, and soul, and be empowered and inspired. We really want the community to understand why we are having Oyster Fest. We want everybody to just get connected, support, and help us out because collectively we can make a change in our community.”
For anyone who lives along Trout River who wants one of the vertical oyster gardens installed on their own dock, they can reach out to RCCO’s social media pages: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561479869248 or https://www.instagram.com/riverviewcollectivecommunity/?igsh=eTVnM21mZ20xb3U5#.
