ENR 2024 Top 25 Newsmakers
Marjorie Mayfield Jackson: Non-profit Founder Used a Collaborative Approach to Address River Pollution and Sea-Level Rise
The Elizabeth River, once heavily polluted and unsafe for swimming, has gradually begun to bounce back as a result of collaborative restoration efforts led by Mayfield Jackson and the Elizabeth River Project, which she founded in 1991.
Photo by Eric Lusher/Courtesy of Elizabeth River Project
Related Article:
Sustainability & Office/Retail/Mixed-Use: Ryan Resilience Lab
Back to:
25 Top Newsmakers
Marjorie Mayfield Jackson so loved the Elizabeth River, which she could see from the back porch of her home near Norfolk, Va., that she quit a successful career as a newspaper reporter in 1991 to save it. The river that runs south of the mouth of the more expansive James River through the city was unswimmable—heavily contaminated by creosote and chemicals left by the shipping industry that dominates the regional economy. Wildlife was scarce and the aquatic life that remained was beginning to develop cancerous lesions.
Mayfield Jackson took a part-time job as a waitress to be able to work with a small team to begin the river restoration effort, which led to creation of the Elizabeth River Project.
Over the organization’s three-decade history, the river has become much healthier, with wildlife returning, according to multiple individuals familiar with its work. They credit much of the project’s success to a focus on bringing together groups normally on opposing sides of legal disputes to collaboratively develop solutions that would benefit all in improving both the ecological and economic well-being of the river and communities on its banks.
“I heard of a study long ago that said the only thing differentiating a plan that gets implemented from one that sits on the shelf is whether the planning team went to the kitchen table of anyone who might oppose it, and listened,” Mayfield Jackson says. “Out of that listening comes the powerful way forward.”
Relationships forged through reducing water pollution are now enabling the Elizabeth River Project to focus on another major challenge—climate change. This year, it completed work on the Ryan Resilience Lab, a building constructed to demonstrate design of structures that are resilient to sea level rise and can be relocated or deconstructed as needed when wetlands migrate further inland.
The decision to include a rolling conservation easement —the first in the nation—was not an easy one, Mayfield Jackson acknowledges. “What we’re doing is staying here to steward the riverfront as long as we possibly can, with a plan to get out of the way when sea level rise reaches a point when the very best thing that could be here is a wetland,” she says.
In the meantime, the project is using the building as a tool to educate not only the public, but also the design and building community in creating structures that are resilient to climate change impacts. “I think it’s safe to say the Ryan Lab is the reference point for resilient design in the region,” says lab manager Luísa Black Ellis, an educator and certified Chesapeake Bay landscape professional.
Looking for quick answers on construction and engineering topics?
Try Ask ENR, our new smart AI search tool.
Ask ENR →
With Mayfield Jackson announcing her retirement at the end of 2024, Lacy Shirey, former executive director of the Chesapeake Humane Society, will lead Elizabeth River Project beginning in February.
David White, executive director of the Virginia Maritime Association, says Mayfield Jackson has left an enduring legacy. “The success of Marjorie’s philosophy and leadership cannot be disputed,” he notes. “Even as the port and maritime industry have continued to grow, so too the health of the Elizabeth River has improved and once unimaginable environmental life and vibrancy has been restored.”
