In 2016, Friends of the Chakchiuma Swamp (FCS) saved what is now called the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve, thwarting the city government’s attempt to cut and sell a 300-acre bottomland hardwood forest on the edge of Grenada, MS, as elected officials stared down a dire budget deficit. The downed trees were to be a quick source of cash for city coffers. It was a local artist, Robin Whitfield, who marshalled $300,000 toward “purchasing” the swamp’s trees, coupled with FCS carrying out a long-term stewardship plan for the Chakchiuma Swamp. The swamp holds regional and international conservation value because of its location, tree stands, connection to waterways, and importance to migratory birds. Whitfield continues to lead FCS and its team of highly engaged volunteers and board members.
The saved trees were just the beginning. The intertwinement of the swamp with Grenada’s civic health drives FCS—a small organization with no paid staff and a successful track record that belies its budget—as it takes on bigger challenges, ever cognizant of the community’s outsized role in the Civil Rights Movement. FCS works toward conservation goals, while sharing the swamp’s wonders with youth and their families and teachers. FCS linked the Grenada Airfield Hangar preservation to its CIRD application, including a proposal to include salvaged materials from storm-damaged portions of the hangar in a new structure at the swamp—a nod to the intertwinement of nature and community in this town of 12,000 people. The WWII-era historic airplane hangar, located on a road surrounded by the Yalobusha River and Grenada Lake, has been underutilized for decades, and remnants of Hurricane Ida caused a partial collapse of the structure’s roof in 2021.
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Site Visit: CIRD team members Omar Hakeem (TBD Studio) and Stephen Sugg (Housing Assistance Council) visited Grenada on November 14 and 15, 2023 to gain a better understanding of the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve and the historic airplane hangar, which is part of Grenada’s working airport. Upon arrival in Grenada, CIRD’s team met at the airport with FCS leadership, the Grenada Airport’s General Manager, three members of the City Council, and other civic and business leaders as they discussed the scope of CIRD’s engagement in their community.
Ultimately, the site visit ensured that key figures in Grenada were aware of CIRD’s work in their community, with CIRD staff emphasizing the community-driven engagement process inherent in CIRD’s model. Other site visit activities included a driving tour of Grenada and Grenada Lake, informal meetings with community members, and a swamp tour alongside representatives from Delta Design Build, Belinda Stewart Architects, and Native Habitats—three Mississippi-based design firms that contributed their expertise to the CIRD work in Grenada.
Virtual Engagement: Building on the site visit, a February 6, 2024, virtual engagement meeting with local officials and FCS leaders helped to clarify the scope for the upcoming Local Design Workshop. The virtual engagement answered four questions:
- Who needs to participate for the workshop to be successful?
- What is the number of community participants desired for the workshop to be successful?
- What questions need to be answered by the workshop process?
- Where does the workshop need to take place?
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CIRD Local Design Workshop: March 20-22, 2024—The workshop’s first day was a chance for CIRD’s team to listen, as a wide swath of Grenada’s residents offered input on sketch concepts of a structure in the swamp to house FCS activities and possibilities for the hangar. Local residents, including a contingent of elementary and middle school students, weighed in on building materials and design styles as CIRD staff took detailed notes. The day’s activities were a mix of semi-structured meetings and working lunches along with drop-in opportunities for residents to give input as CIRD’s team took over two downtown buildings. Late in the day, dozens of Grenada residents and FCS volunteers joined CIRD’s design team and David Lewis, Executive Director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, on a late-day tour of the swamp and hangar. highschool students, weighed in on building materials and design styles as CIRD staff took detailed notes. The day’s activities were a mix of semi-structured meetings and working lunches along with drop-in opportunities for residents to give input as CIRD’s team took over two downtown buildings. Late in the day, dozens of Grenada residents and FCS volunteers joined CIRD’s design team and David Lewis, Executive Director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, on a late-day tour of the swamp and hangar.
The workshop’s second day was structured for CIRD’s design team - including TBD Studio’s Omar Hakeem and Brandon Robles; Ben Stone, Director of Design and Creative Placemaking at the National Endowment for the Arts; and representatives from the three Mississippi-based design firms - to compare community engagement notes and craft renderings for additional community input on the workshop’s third and final day. As design concepts were being refined, Housing Assistance Council’s Stephen Sugg met with airport stakeholders, city council members, airport staff, pilots, and local business leaders to learn more about community priorities for the hangar. At that meeting, several attendees emphasized that the hangar is part of a working airport and that future plans should not interfere with aviation activities. The visit included a walking tour of airport operations.
Day three of the workshop centered on a public presentation of preliminary design concepts. As they presented, the design team emphasized the malleable nature of what they were showing while welcoming continued community input—which meeting attendees readily provided. CIRD’s design team concluded the presentation with a promise of a design book that incorporates the feedback from the workshop, including an oft-stated need for a flexible design that grows with FCS programming at the swamp.
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Overall, the workshop activities highlighted widespread community and school-based support for a structure that will enhance FCS programming at the swamp. There was a clear consensus that FCS programs benefit the community, region, and state—a point also made by David Lewis, Mississippi Arts Commission Director during his visit to the workshop.
Another theme to emerge from the workshop was to commend and build on FCS’s efforts to engage the Black community in Grenada—57% of the town’s population. Several community members, including Black elected officials, shared that violent episodes from the town’s history have kept the Black community in particular away from the swamp and from broader engagement with nature. CIRD’s design book will offer environmental justice-centered funding opportunities that might further FCS’s efforts to engage all of Grenada.
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In partnership with Delta Design Build, Belinda Stewart Architects, and Native Habitats, CIRD’s design team is finalizing renderings of an open-air structure for gathering and learning in the swamp that builds on the community’s stated preferences, both aesthetic and practical. Youth and teachers emphasized the need for bathrooms, for example. And FCS leaders note the need for a facility that serves multiple purposes while providing a foundation for environmental education activities that are gaining statewide and even national recognition.
Moreover, CIRD’s design team is also sharing with the community options for preservation and enhanced use of the city’s airplane hangar, which holds immense historical value. Belinda Stewart, a Mississippi architect versed in historic preservation, shared with the community that the hangar retains elements of structural integrity despite significant storm damage that tore off sections of the building. The hangar and swamp share interconnected roles in the town’s history, with a waterway and road from the airport to Grenada’s downtown linking both. CIRD’s design has shared with the community examples of hangar re-purposing projects in other communities while CIRD staff from the Housing Assistance Council have researched aviation-linked funding streams for the hangar.
Additionally, FCS will continue to take part in the CIRD Design Learning Cohort through 2024. This provides FCS and their peers from across the country with access to CIRD’s technical assistance experts and peer-to-peer learning opportunities. And lessons from Grenada will inform ongoing design work and conversations throughout rural America.
Read more about how FCS links the preservation of the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve with broader community building in Grenada.
