{"id":11565,"date":"2025-04-01T15:49:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=11565"},"modified":"2025-04-01T15:49:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:49:37","slug":"get-to-know-jimmy-orth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/get-to-know-jimmy-orth\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know \u2026 Jimmy Orth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>By Martie Thompson<br>editor@floridanewsline.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jimmy Orth is the executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper; this year, the organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary as an advocate for and educator about the St. Johns River. Jimmy is a native of Jacksonville and grew up in the Mandarin area. He has a marketing degree from Florida State University and a master\u2019s degree in Public Administration from the University of North Florida. He started working with the Riverkeeper 21 years ago, right after he finished his master\u2019s degree at UNF. \u201cThe St. Johns Riverkeeper was looking to hire its first executive director at the time,\u201d he said. \u201cI took a chance on them and they took a chance on me \u2026 and 21 years later, here I am.\u201d Orth is married to Genora Crain-Orth and has a 17-year-old son. The family has two dogs and \u201can unknown number\u201d of cats (including two inside cats and outside cats).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: Have you always been interested in the St. Johns River?<\/strong><br>A: Growing up near the river, we were always exploring the area and riding our bikes. I had friends who lived on the river and we would jump off their docks into the river or fish along the shoreline. As I grew up, I had buddies who had boats, so we would go skiing. In my early years, the river was imprinted on me, but I didn\u2019t consider myself an environmentalist until I attended an Earth Day celebration in Tallahassee and eventually became involved in the Sierra Club. That\u2019s what led me to go back to school to get my master\u2019s in Public Administration \u2026 I hoped for a job with an environmental non-profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What does the St. Johns Riverkeeper do?<\/strong><br>A: Primarily, we advocate for the river and try to find policy solutions to protect the river. We educate adults and children about the river and plant seeds for the next generation of advocates. If we introduce people to the river, and they experience it, then they will care about it. We also investigate problems in the river, such as recently in areas south of Mandarin where we have seen a lot of grasses disappear after Hurricane Irma. Normally these grasses grow back after a time and we\u2019re trying to figure out why they haven\u2019t.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What do you like the most about your job?<\/strong><strong><br><\/strong>A: Probably the people I\u2019ve met along the way. There are so many who care about and have a deep connection to the river, such as fishers and boaters. I like seeing people get involved as volunteers and donors and I like the education work we do with kids. I\u2019m also proud of the fact that we\u2019re still here and moving forward. We haven\u2019t given up. This is a challenging job and there are many obstacles to protecting the river. We don\u2019t win all the battles, but we keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can all agree that we need to protect the river, regardless of political persuasion. We all want a clean and healthy river; how do we work together to get that? I think we\u2019ve done a pretty good job on this over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What volunteer opportunities are available with the St. Johns Riverkeeper?<\/strong><br>A: We have administrative opportunities as well as we always need people to man a Riverkeeper booth at various events, which gives the opportunity to educate people about the river. We need a strong constituency for the river, so one thing people can do is respond to our Calls to Action and write letters on various subjects to their elected officials. Also, river cleanups are always popular. They\u2019re a good way for groups to get together and see the tangible results of their efforts.<br><br><strong>Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?<\/strong><br>A: I like doing projects around the house and also paddling and hiking outdoors. I walk every day and listen to a lot of podcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Editor\u2019s Note: Visit https:\/\/stjohnsriverkeeper.org\/ for more information or follow them on Instagram or Facebook.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo courtesy Jimmy Orth<br>Jimmy Orth<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Martie Thompsoneditor@floridanewsline.com Jimmy Orth is the executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper; this year, the organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary as an advocate for and educator about the St. Johns River. Jimmy is a native of Jacksonville and grew up in the Mandarin area. He has a marketing degree from Florida State [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[10],"class_list":{"0":"post-11565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns","8":"category-mandarin","9":"tag-get-to-know"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Get to Know \u2026 Jimmy Orth - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLine By Martie Thompsoneditor@floridanewsline.com Jimmy Orth is the executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper; this year, the organization is celebrating\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/get-to-know-jimmy-orth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Get to Know \u2026 Jimmy Orth - Florida NewsLine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLine By Martie Thompsoneditor@floridanewsline.com Jimmy Orth is the executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper; 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