Coincidence of events.

What we are doing to clean up Wilson Bay

The creation of the Water Quality Initiative.

Putting paddlewheels to work to aereate the water.

How shellfish help.

The benefit of wetlands.

Working with the neighborhood to keep the Bay clean.

Success in restoring habitat.

Projects

The Water Quality Initiative

Stormwater Mitigation

NOAA Community Habitat Restoration at Chaney Creek

US Army Corps of Engineers 206 Ecosystem Restoration Projects

Smithfield Environmental Enhancement

The Wilson Bay Initiative - Shellfish project from NC State University. Dr. Jay Levine Project Director

Environmental Volunteering with the Jacksonville-Onslow Volunteer Center.

A report on what the Fellows of the Year 2000 Student Leadership Development Institute found in Wilson Bay.

Staff and Contacts
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During the time the City of Jacksonville was hearing its citizens say that they wanted to return the uses of the river to the public, that they wanted a source of pride in the community and that they wanted the river and Wilson Bay available for recreation and fishing, a project at a local high school was underway that provided a link.

Dr. Jay Levine of NC State University was working with the County Economic Development Director, Dr. Walter Timm, on a mariculture program for at Dixon High School.

Dr. Timm had been at the summits where the Citizens had spoken. He also had an interest in helping to create a better quality of life for the area so that the lure for industry would be stronger. Dr. Levine and Dr. Timm had been with a group who had traveled to France where they had seen the positive effects of oyster growth, and they knew how oysters could filter dirty water.

The two proposed their idea to then Mayor George Jones, who encouraged the development of the concept into a grant to the Clean Water Management Trust Fund. The idea was initially dismissed as a research project and not a water protection action. Eventually, with significant lobbying from then Mayor Jones, the project won funding which provided the impetus for the creation of the Wilson Bay Initiative.



Jay Levine and Walter Timm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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