Local Environmentalist Protected the Land that Protected Her

By Audrey Cress

Beverly Fleming (or “Granny B” as kids called her) spent the 2010s showing off Florida souvenirs to students in St. Johns County elementary schools. From antlers to weeds, flowers to butterflies, Fleming knew how to make treasure out of what most people ignore.

It’s been ten years since naturalist died in May of 2016 at the age of 69, and almost a year since she was finally recognized in the St. Johns County Hall of Fame as the county’s first naturalist.

Fleming wasn’t chosen for the honor solely because of her impressive knowledge on Florida wildlife, but because the natural environment of St. Johns County was dwindling quickly without a voice to fight for it.

Fleming became that voice.

“She knew development was coming; she wanted common-sense growth, not ‘tear down 2,000 trees to plant 50 in a straight line.’ If she said you weren’t gonna’ build there – by God – she’d find a reason the federal government would stop you,” said her step-son, Dave Fleming.

In February 2000, she took on the role of County Naturalist, where she served for more than 10 years. She learned quickly the giants she was up against as development in St. Johns County began to spread.

According to 1000 Friends of Florida, a non-profit smart-growth advocacy organization started in 1986, “St. Johns has been one of the fastest growing counties in the United States over the past 15 years, roughly doubling its population.”

A New Start: From Missouri to Florida

Ironically, Fleming didn’t grow up in Florida. For her, Florida was an opportunity to start over – leaving her early life in Missouri behind.

“She was getting away from a very abusive marriage …” said Dave Fleming. “She fled Missouri … jumped on the back of a Harley and said, ‘Bye.’”

When she got to St. Johns County, she worked as a bartender where her future husband and stepson were frequent visitors. After getting married, the St. Joe Paper Company gave Beverly and her husband the role of superintendent over 5,200 acres of land.

“She learned everything she could … I think she started so she could do her job as a superintendent … of Florida’s woods and swamps on the river,” Dave Fleming said. “And understand what it was that she was trying to do and trying to build.”

The wild, untamed corner of Florida became a haven from the life she ran from. She dedicated her time, energy and photographic memory to preserving and protecting it – as it had protected her.

During her time as a superintendent, Fleming raised her five children on the property. As free as the nature around them, the Fleming family spent their days on the river, exploring the woods and swamps on the widespread property.

While they protected the land from wandering guests, she welcomed and nurtured any injured animals or creatures. That included her owl, Sam, who lived with her for years while rehabilitating injuries.

Using a piece of wood from furniture with a rag on the end, Dave Fleming would paddle Fleming up and down the river as she observed the nature around her.

“I had paddled that woman’s ass up and down this river so much, I eventually said ‘I’m done,’ and left her to paddle on her own,” he said.

Advocating: Fleming’s fight for conservation in a growing county

When St. Joe Paper Company decided to stop selling paper and start selling houses, Fleming could no longer protect the land as an employee. She began defending it as a member of the St. Johns County community instead.

One of the first marks Fleming left on Northeast Florida conservation was through the Earth Stewardship Conference (later renamed the Earth Kinship Conference). The conference brought together science, arts, religion and indigenous people to contribute to healing the environment.

“Beverly was a huge behind-the-scenes part of this. Without Beverly, this stuff wouldn’t have happened. But, of course, she wasn’t in the front running. My father and John Hammond were the face of the conference, but she did a lot of behind-the-scenes,” explained Ayolane Halusky, a student of Beverly and succeeding county naturalist.

The conference was started in 1988, and continued for 16 years. The event was described as “an evolving education and exploration conference on human values, behavior, ethics and vision about our changing earth.”

She was also the Director and one of the founders of the Environmental Education Resource Council of North East Florida (EERC). 

There weren’t many who understood how many roles she really had in terms of conservation.

“Beverly was kind of a forgotten resource when she was here. The amount of stuff that she did that people don’t even know, to this day, it’s shocking. There were no records. No numbers. It was just, ‘Yeah, we know she does stuff,’” Halusky said.

While the average person didn’t know who Fleming was or what a difference she was making, some knew her knowledge and efforts could make a real, essential difference as the naturalist in a growing county.

During the years of 2000 and 2010, the population of St. Johns County increased by 54.3% with an explosive suburban housing boom according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census.

Preceding the 2008 recession, communities, developments and expansions flooded the county with requests for building permits. A majority of these communities were located in the Northwest region of the county – where Fleming and her family once lived and protected the untouched, wild land and animals that lived there.

The first to jump on the treasure that was West St. Johns County was the expansion of World Golf Village. In the 90s, the project was first approved, and in the early 2000s the 6,300 acre project was breaking ground.

Following World Golf Village was the buildout of Julington Creek Plantation and Nocatee, one of the largest master-planned communities in the Southeast. Consequently, SR13 was expanded, retail centers multiplied and schools were built.

Dave and his sister, Kitty Fleming, remembered fondly a time when Fleming saved a beautiful oak tree on SR13. “It was so large, four of us couldn’t hold hands around it … She saved it from the road widening,” she said.

She was always fighting – always standing up for the environment she cherished so much.

“She’d go to council meetings; you didn’t want to debate her. They let her talk as long as she wanted – and they gave in,” said Dave Fleming.

Even within her own department, Halusky described Parks and Recreation in the 2000s as human games and activity – sticks and balls. 

“Football, baseball, tennis … That was recreation. The act of walking down a nature trail was considered a waste of space,” Halusky said.

Education: A new approach to understanding nature

By 2013, she had fought a good fight, not without ensuring her student, Ayolane Halusky was prepared to take her place as County Naturalist. 

While she took a step back from her work as an employee of St. Johns County, she was as active as ever in educating children to continue protecting what she had battled for.

Education was one of Fleming’s joys and talents. As one of her prized pupils, Hulasky learned a lot from Fleming’s unique teaching style.

“When we really experience nature, when we see it and feel it, we learn to love it,” Fleming wrote. “An example of that is when I take children to a park to feel the bark of the oak trees there. When they close their eyes and use the tips of their fingers to trace the texture of the bark and use their arms to embrace the tree, and their nose to smell the tree, they take away a memory of that tree.”

While her methods were far from classic education, there was something to be said for the experience and dedication she passed onto her students. What they learned from her was more than facts about the leaves and birds. They would catch onto a contagious awareness and responsibility to acknowledge and understand the living things in their very own backyards.

“She actually had me start doing a journal. I had to do what’s called a spirit print of the leaves. I’d put the leaf under the paper and rub the pencil over the top to capture it,” Hulasky said. “I had to go through what the plant was good for, how it was used, where it grew, different similar plants, what the flowers looked like, what colors they were.”

Fleming’s education on Florida’s natural environment was admired by the educators and scientists at the University of Florida where she was a regular speaker. But similar to how she taught her students, her education wasn’t at a desk or in a classroom. 

“Her background was knees on the ground and dirt in your hands,” said Halusky.

“She was somebody who just craved information … anything she discovers, ask her about it again in 10 days — she’ll tell you everything that’s ever been written about it … from memory,” Dave Fleming said.

Everything she taught and shared, whether through the hundreds of articles she wrote for Northeast Florida publications or the classes she taught in local schools, was proven by her own research. 

Fleming, along with her friends Gail Compton and two other women, called themselves the “Ditch Witches.” Piling into a mini van together, they explored Florida, stopping for every flower and plant that sparked their curiosity – taking photos and jotting down their importance.

The research of the Ditch Witches didn’t disappear with Fleming. They published hundreds of articles in local publications, and after Fleming’s death, Halusky compiled her publications into a book titled “The Legacy of the Ditch Witches: A Journey through Northeastern Florida (2021).”

“We went through, gosh, maybe 500 or something different writings of her and Gail Compton and picked the best ones,” said Ayolane.

Along with botanical research, the collection includes photos of wildlife and art from local artist Eileen King.

Her Legacy: Many parks and organizations in St. Johns County owe their evolvement to Fleming

Besides her many articles, Fleming’s legacy is still alive and well in the places she loved most. One of which is Alpine Groves Park. As a member of the Friends of Alpine Groves, Fleming worked behind the scenes to make the beautiful 54.5 acre park in Switzerland, Florida what it is today. 

“If it wasn’t for Beverly, Alpine Groves would be condos right now,” said Dave Fleming.

She planted butterfly gardens full of native Florida plants to attract the unique species often hiding from developed areas.

Fleming also helped to get grants and develop Canopy Shores Park, Riverdale Point Park, countless herb and butterfly gardens on school properties and more. She played a major role at the Mandarin Garden Club, Switzerland Garden Club, St. Augustine Garden Club, Audubon Society of Jacksonville, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Bartram Scenic Highway, Florida Native Plant Society of St. Augustine and the Environmental Education Resource Council of Northeast Florida.

Thousands of residents and millions of visitors flood St. Johns County. They fill the beaches with life and sound. They admire the wildlife and architecture of the city and state parks. St. Johns County leaves everyone touched – appreciative of what a haven of natural wonders it is in a state so threatened by increasing development.

What they might not know is they owe that breath of fresh air to Fleming. 

Without her voice – fighting for the St. Johns County’s natural environment, the nature that protected her in her early life would be gone – paved over. The sound of birds and wildlife would be replaced with traffic and the white noise of an overpopulated county.

When we walk the paths of places like Alpine Groves Park, the pieces of earth Fleming fought for whole-heartedly, we can’t forget the battles she championed in her lifetime. And the legacy that will last long after her death.