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Army Corps Plans Restoration Of Avondale’s Big Fishweir Creek

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be giving the public an update Thursday evening on plans to restore Big Fishweir Creek in Jacksonville’s Avondale area.

“Signing this agreement with the City of Jacksonville is good news for the community and its residents who will benefit from this local-federal partnership,” said Col. Jason Kirk, District commander in June.

The Corps' Jacksonville District says that due to urbanization, including encroachment along the banks of the creek, sediments transported by storms have covered the natural creek bottom. 

The project as an estimated pricetag of about $6.5 million

Called the Big Fishweir Creek Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration, the project will remove sediment which the Corps says will restore habitat for manatee and other native species. It will also remove exotic vegetation, restoring submerged and emergent aquatic vegetation. It's also expected to restore some wetlands.

WJCT News reported in February that another one of the goals of the project is to make the creek swimmable by 2020.

Big Fishweir Creek is about four miles south of downtown and flows into the St. Johns River, just north of the Ortega River.

Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District will be at the at Willowbranch Branch Library, 2875 Park Street on September 20 to give a presentation and answer questions from the public.

A meet-and-greet begins at 6 followed by the presentation at 6:30 p.m.

Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.

Bill joined WJCT News in September of 2017 from The Florida Times-Union, where he served in a variety of multimedia journalism positions.