EEECHO

05/29/2026

Register for this exciting, educational, entertaining and fun movie night! Our student storytelling interns and their advisors have worked tirelessly gathering community stories and compiling histories. Learn about the unique histories of 10 Gulfport neighborhoods! We will have lots of great food and enlightening historical information! The student winner of the Kenneth E. Taylor Scholarship Award will also be announced. If you can’t join us in person, please scan the QR code to join us virtually. You don’t want to miss this event!

05/29/2026

Can’t join our community film night screening in person? Then join us virtually for the exciting premier of our student storytellers’ film screening.

05/20/2026

Turkey Creek wetlands' were given a special EPA classification of “aquatic resources of national importance” (ARNI) and placed in a conservation trust (with federal funds) as permanently non-developable because of their critical role in maintaining national water quality. Now they are slated for destruction for a road development project. Much better and much more efficient routes were available and could avert obliterating these invaluable, rare wetlands.

“This should be a cause for concern for every place in the nation,” Gulfport resident Kathy Egland said.

05/18/2026

From Charles with the Mississippi NAACP: Please join the Mississippi NAACP and our partners for a Voting Rights Rally at the Mississippi State Capitol on Wednesday, May 20, at 12 PM. With voting rights under attack and major Supreme Court fights threatening protections for voters, now is the time to stand together and make our voices heard.

📍 Mississippi State Capitol (pick up shirt and lunch at Jackson Convention Center 10am-11:30am)
🗓 Wednesday, May 20
⏰ Rally starts at 12:00 PM

Please RSVP ASAP for our t-shirt & food count

Here is a link to RSVP:https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-mississippi-fights-back-2?source=vrarefcode STOP to end

Sign up here to ensure you’re kept up to date on the latest information about making our voices heard at rallies, through contacting other voters, supporting volunteer efforts during the upcoming elections, and more as we say NO TO JIM CROW 2.0!

05/17/2026

Let ‘em know, Mississippi! We don’t need it, don’t want it! Get your comments in to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) BEFORE MAY 26!

If you or members of your community would like a learning session about the proposed pipeline and its potential impacts on Mississippians and our air, water, land, health and safety, public commenting or anything pipeline related— reach out to us at anytime & let’s get it moving!!!

➡️ Public Comment Toolkit: bit.ly/kjppubliccomment

➡️ Request a learning session: email [email protected].

05/16/2026

These community superheroes are defenders of our nation’s most invaluable wetlands. The federal government's assaults against the Turkey Creek wetlands protections have national implications. Under this Administration- nothing is protected, not even our wetlands resources of such rarity and national importance that they have been given a special classification as non-developable because of their critical role in maintaining national water quality. The Turkey Creek wetlands were granted that status with federal funding to the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plains to be put into a conservation trust to ensure they would NEVER be developed. WHO declassified the Turkey Creek wetlands' aquatic resources of national importance (ARNI) protection status? WHEN was the Turkey Creek ARNI status reviewed, revoked, and now declared "for sale for a fair price" so that they can be destroyed for development? What monetary value can be placed on property that’s been declared invaluable?

05/13/2026

EEECHO wants to set the record straight. We have NEVER questioned or criticized the judicial process associated with Interconnecting Gulfport because we well know that the rule of the law must be followed. The only case that EEECHO has had before any judge, associated with this project has been in federal court. That federal judge dismissed our case. We have never, ever called him (or any other judge) by name or criticized his ruling. Our issues are strictly with the City of Gulfport’s handling of this project and the federal government that no longer protects wetlands that the federal government itself designated of such national importance that they were permanently placed in land conservation trust as "non-developable". Now through a high-level political process, the federal government has reversed itself. This leaves everyone else with limited recourse and could have serious national implications. It is our POLITICAL system that has failed our community.

The water quality certification and the large construction stormwater general permit were both approved.

05/09/2026

This film was recorded over 5 years ago and still extremely timely and relevant. Thanks Anthropocene Alliance.

Community leaders and residents in Gulfport, MS, are fighting to protect the destruction of wetlands that surround two historic African American communities ...

05/08/2026

Updated version.

“This project will benefit developers, not the people of Gulfport,” opponents say.

05/07/2026

Gulfport secures wetlands for major road that residents have opposed for years

The city of Gulfport has gone to court and secured wetlands acreage in North Gulfport for a major thoroughfare that will open up property in the city’s busiest commercial hub, but also has limited potential to ease traffic congestion, a state study has shown. Harrison County Court Judge Robin Midcalf ruled the property will be deeded to the city for the appraised value of $157,169 for the Interconnecting Gulfport project. The city is taking the property from the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain, which acquired it through a grant meant to conserve wetlands.

The city plans to extend Airport Road west of U.S. 49, with an overpass built over Interstate 10, connecting commercial areas north and south of the interstate, including Gulfport Premium Outlets. The road also would create potential for development in a wetlands area that residents have fought for decades to preserve. The city says the project will relieve traffic congestion around Interstate 10 and U.S. 49. But a study completed in 2017 for the Mississippi Department of Transportation scored other alternatives far higher and questioned the project’s impact on wetlands. Residents of surrounding neighborhoods, including Turkey Creek and Forest Heights, say the road will lead to flooding and degrade water quality in the Turkey Creek watershed. Turkey Creek’s wetlands are categorized by the Environmental Protection Agency as Aquatic Resources of National Importance.

“Developing commercial property in these critical wetlands will actually make traffic worse on Highway 49, because it will bring more cars,” says a news release from the Education, Economics, Environmental Climate and Health Organization, or EEECHO, which has long opposed the project. “This project will benefit developers, not the people of Gulfport. They believe, and the city has previously said, that the project would promote commercial growth.”

EEECHO is planning a community bus trip on May 12 to Jackson, where the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board will consider issuing water quality certification and a large construction stormwater permit for the project. MDEQ has already warned EEECHO leaders that no public hearing is required, but the board could decide to take public comments.

The project has been on the books for years, with public comments solicited in 2024. In 2022, the Federal Highway Administration concluded the project would have no significant environmental impact. The city plans to build a retention pond on the property it is taking from the Land Trust to capture stormwater.

The Land Trust has filed a motion that asks Judge Midcalf to reconsider allowing the city to take the property. The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, which was originally awarded the federal grant for the property and deeded it to the nonprofit Land Trust for preservation, has filed a motion to intervene in the court case. MDMR wants to ensure that the purchase complies with grant requirements and federal law, says the motion, filed by a special assistant attorney general who represents the agency.

The city estimated the cost of the project at $48.5 million in 2022. City officials were in a meeting and unavailable to provide a current cost estimate Thursday morning. The city planned in 2022 to use a total of 176 or 188 forested acres for the project, which would include properties in addition to the Land Trust acreage, city records show.

The city’s latest records talk about the project easing traffic congestion, omitting previous mentions of the project’s development potential. Louisiana’s Ward family has tried for many years to develop land south of I-10 near Gulfport Premium Outlets. “It was federal grant money that put this land in conservation that they are now trying to destroy,” said Katherine Egland of Gulfport, EEECHO co-founder and a member of the NAACP’s National Board of Directors. “It’s mind-boggling. All roads lead to the Ward Development.”

“This project will benefit developers, not the people of Gulfport,” opponents say.