The St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA) safeguards environmental and public health on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands’ largest island. Founded in 1986, SEA manages the 100-acre Southgate Coastal Reserve – home to endangered sea turtles and diverse wildlife. The beach and coastal forest are being weakened by hurricanes, erosion, and heavy recreational use. They run youth conservation programs reaching thousands of public school students island-wide, with a focus on addressing environmental threats. In 2021, SEA successfully challenged EPA, leading to stricter pollution controls and the eventual closure of the Limetree Bay oil refinery, which had for years exposed 20,000 downwind residents – 75% people of color and 27% living in poverty – to toxic air, polluted water, and tainted soil. Through education, conservation, and advocacy, SEA protects both the environment and the predominantly African-descent population of St. Croix.
SEA’s Education Coordinator Olivia Walton speaks to elementary school children about ocean health and conservation during their annual summer camp series.
SEA is a small women-led organization with two full-time staff, one part-time staff, one part-time contractor, and eight board members, yet their size belies their impact. Since its founding, SEA has planted over 20,000 trees on St. Croix including thousands of mangroves in Salt River in the wake of Hurricane Hugo, native trees for forest restoration at the Southgate Coastal Reserve, and hundreds of the endemic, endangered St. Croix Agave in cooperation with private landowners. Encouraging citizen science, each January SEA hosts a Bioblitz where residents take nature walks and snorkel trips, and learn from environmental experts to help catalogue all the plants, animals, and other organisms living at the reserve. Despite their success in closing the Lime Tree Bay refinery, SEA remains vigilant. They are currently fighting a proposed re-opening of a large oil refinery on the same shuttered site, now named Port Hamilton Refining. The names may change, but the threats remain, and so does SEA.
SEA’s Environmental Changemakers program is designed for teens with a passion for the environment and an interest in developing the skills and tools needed to be a champion for its protection.