Jacksonville officials are celebrating its environmental education summer program offered each summer since 1999 to area high school students.
Called the New River Institutes at Sturgeon City, originally named Sturgeon City Institutes, a celebration of the program being in its 25th year is scheduled from 5-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 26, at Sturgeon City Environmental Education Center, 50 Court St.
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Student and teaching alumni, current students and educators, community partners and residents are welcome to the event being offered at no charge.
The Wilson Bay Initiative and the Sturgeon City projects were motivated by residents. The New River was so degraded that in 1995, when a huge hog house lagoon escaped its berm and flooded into the river, the predictions of large fish kills and sudden death to the river did not occur, because the river was already so degraded, officials said.
Around the same time, Jacksonville City Council decided to close the old Wilson Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant and open an environmentally friendly and expandable land treatment site.
In 1999 the first group of high school students participated in the Sturgeon City Institutes. That same year, they discovered the first signs that life was returning to the river.
Close to 100 students are registered for 2024 taking place June 24-28. Though registration is closed for this year, Jacksonville City Council supports plans to increase that number in the future by extending the institutes to two weeks and to look at opportunities throughout the year, officials said.
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