BILOXI, Miss.—Soggy shoes in a parking lot served as unlikely inspiration for Jonathan Green, the executive director of Steps Coalition, a Biloxi-based organization that focuses on community development, as well as climate and environmental justice.
The shoes were his. The water was left over from a heavy rain. The parking lot belonged to Biloxi’s New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, which sits on Main Street. And the inspiration took the shape of a rain garden.
“It basically becomes a sponge after a major rain,” Green said of undeveloped land adjacent to the church. “Main Street, as it is today, is pretty indicative of the lack of investment in East Biloxi. We want people to live in a community that’s not continually decimated or incapacitated by extreme flooding.”
In partnership with Anthropocene Alliance, Green and the Steps Coalition used $70,000 in funding from a federal grant through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to build a rain garden that utilizes native landscaping and an underground bioswale to capture the rainwater and release it into the soil over time. That measured release mitigates the likelihood of flooding in an area where the water table is exceptionally high.
“The water has more time to leach into the ground without being a nuisance,” Green said. “We definitely have a vision of seeing more gardens like that throughout the community.”
And that singular, thoughtful project has led to two more efforts that could have an even greater effect on the Biloxi community. Hurricane Katrina hit the city hard, and Biloxi continues to face water-related challenges—particularly on the east side, which lies in a flood zone. The two new projects will utilize $227,000 in funding from additional National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grants, which the Inflation Reduction Act made possible, that was signed into law in 2022.
Reimagining Keegan Bayou and Bayou Auguste
As part of its vision to create a “healthy, just and equitable Gulf Coast,” the Steps Coalition will again work with Anthropocene Alliance to reimagine Keegan Bayou and Bayou Auguste through nature-based restoration projects.
Keegan Bayou, a tidal marsh habitat, is about a half-mile long and five feet at its deepest. Bayou Auguste (pronounced Augusta) is an urban bayou that acts as a natural water drainage system and serves as an estuarine habitat that is home to an abundance of fish and birds.
For Green, the restoration initiatives for these two bayous not only benefit the natural environment, but they also have the potential to positively influence the social determinants of health for Biloxi residents.
“It would have an immediate benefit for the community,” Green said of the bayou restoration projects. “We’re trying to create healthy spaces for the community that also protect at the same time.”
Plans for the area also include developing strategies to eliminate overgrowth, clean up trash, create spaces for recreation and education, and reserve open, green space to help with coastal flooding.
In addition, Bayou Auguste is home to historical artifacts that have fallen into disrepair, like the Blacks-only swimming pool that served as a recreational refuge during America’s segregated past and now acts as a timestamp on social progress. Green said the organization would like to preserve it, with the support and oversight of a proper custodian for the restored areas.
“We’re hoping to create a permanent public space where people can go, with park benches and nature markers,” Green said. “Some partners are even suggesting free Wi-Fi out there, so people can work. We recognize that we’ll be throwing good money after bad if we don’t have a custodian model, so a nature center has come into the conversation.”
The grants for the bayou projects are for foundational planning, which Green said the Steps Coalition could not have secured without the help and expertise of Anthropocene Alliance. The organization also helped with grant writing for the rainwater garden project. The applications for federal grants, Green said, can be pretty technical.
“It always helps to have landscape architects and engineers and people who know this stuff to sit down and help you write it. I didn’t know what a bioswale was before this project,” Green said. “Once the planning grant is done, hopefully it’ll be the catalyst for funding to actually do the work. That’s the goal.”
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