After more than three decades of environmental advocacy for one of Hampton Roads’ most important waterways, Marjorie Mayfield Jackson will retire as executive director of the Elizabeth River Project.
Jackson and three others created the project in 1991 around a kitchen table. She left her job as a Virginian-Pilot reporter to focus on the project full time. Since then, nearly 7,000 families have joined the project’s River Star Homes, which is made up of homeowners who have pledged to keep the river clean by taking care of their own yards. In addition, thousands of children across the region have learned on the Dominion Energy Learning Barge and 40-acre Paradise Creek Nature Park.
Before the project was formed, the Elizabeth Rriver was considered one of the most industrialized rivers in the world and was “virtually devoid of life for miles at a stretch.”
“I’ve had the great privilege of leading many thousands of supporters and partners to make so much progress toward turning around the health of a river once presumed dead,” Jackson said in a statement. “I’m hoping this is the next great thing I’m able to help do to continue the transformation of the Elizabeth River into the future.”
The nonprofit debuted the Ryan Resilience Lab this summer. Constructed inside a flood zone along one of Norfolk’s busiest commercial corridors, the lab is flanked by multiple residential neighborhoods and showcases what the future of sustainable coastal living might look like.
The facility features a floating entry pavilion and storage shed, a “living shoreline” instead of a hardened shore, an 80,000-watt solar energy system, rainwater collection system, and a permeable parking lot to keep polluted runoff from reaching the river.
“For the last three decades, we worked on fixing problems of the past — legacy pollution, loss of wetlands and oysters,” Jackson said. “Now we are refocusing to help people find hope and action for the future, as we inherit the highest rate of sea level rise on the East Coast.”
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
