Launched in 2023 in partnership with LISC Jacksonville, the Resilient Ribault initiative continues to address the challenges facing the waterways and communities in the Ribault River and Moncrief Creek watersheds. We work with community partners to provide equitable access to the river, clean water for locals to enjoy, and the necessary infrastructure improvements to mitigate flooding and improve community resilience.
Some highlights from our efforts this year:
- Thanks to a grant received by LISC, we partnered with Riverview Collective Community Organization to install an oyster reef at Riverview Park to improve water quality and protect the shoreline from storms and erosion.
- More than 150 trees have been planted at seven parks in the project area.
- Quarterly stakeholder meetings are held with residents, community organizations, and city officials to gather feedback, share ideas, and identify solutions.
- Workshops led by the Nonprofit Center of NE Florida helped strengthen partner organizations in the project area with capacity building skills & resources.
- 13 boat trips allowed residents and local stakeholders to experience the Ribault River by water and gain a new perspective of their community.
- Our afterschool program at Sallye B. Mathis Elementary educated students about the surrounding waterways in their community, while an anti-litter art contest emphasized the importance of protecting our rivers and creeks.
- We partnered with Ribault High for our free, educational Backpack Program. Students were able to test the quality of the Ribault River over the course of a year.
- We held a service day on campus at Sallye B. Mathis Elementary to maintain native landscaping installed by Haskell in 2024.
- Our continued partnership with Eartha’s Farm and Market to provide River and Roots field trips for middle and high school students allows local teens to learn about regenerative and sustainable agricultural processes and how they help our St. Johns River Watershed.
- We spent 25 days and 112 hours on Moncrief Creek and the Ribault River conducting our ongoing Environmental Quality Assessment. We collected and tested 276 water samples from these tributaries.
Resilient Ribault is supported by a generous 5-year grant from the Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund. We’re concentrating resources into a smaller geographic area for a prolonged time period, involving the entire St. Johns Riverkeeper team, as well as community partners, in an effort to maximize our impact and build the trust and relationships necessary to be successful. We hope to create an approach that could be applied in the future to other watershed communities.