Posted by Bill Osborne
Cotie Bailey, Donor Relations Manager for The Nature Conservancy of Mississippi spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at its September 1, 2020, meeting. The subject of Bailey’s presentation was the activities of The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi. Examples she highlighted were Loch Leven, Coffee Point, the Pascagoula River, and restoring the longleaf pine plantations. The link to the meeting including her presentation is https://vimeo.com/454062695. Since 1965, The Nature Conservancy has been working to conserve lands and waters in Mississippi that have provided a sense of place and connection to our natural heritage for many generations. TNC has played a key role in protecting and restoring some of our most iconic landscapes, totaling over 139,000 acres across the state. Together, we are making a measurable, lasting difference in Mississippi.
Longleaf Pine forests a Southern Treasure.
As fire rushes through the grasses of a longleaf pine forest, shrubs ignite in quick, hot bursts and the bark of the pine trees blackens. Younger longleafs, still in their grass stage, shield their precious buds from the heat with their long, tightly packed needles. Gopher tortoises are safe in their burrows. Insects take flight. The fire moves quickly through the grasses, and the trees are all the better for it.
 
A controlled burn at the Talisheek Preserve in Southeast Louisiana was set with drip torches by The Nature Conservancy’s Louisiana burn crew. Throughout the southeastern United States, TNC’s longleaf pine management relies on controlled burns to replace the natural fires that longleaf pine communities rely on. This crew burns up to 10,000 acres in Louisiana and Mississippi each year. Nearby neighborhoods have been notified to expect smoke—like many tracts of longleaf pine in the southeast, Talisheek is in the middle of a quickly developing region.
A DIVERSE LANDSCAPE SHAPED BY FIRE
Longleaf pine was once the dominant plant community of the south, covering 90 million acres from Virginia to east Texas, through all of the states in TNC’s Southern U.S. Division. Rather than thick woods, healthy longleaf pine forests are more like savannas, characterized by diverse open grasslands. A great diversity of plant and animal species made up these longleaf pine forests across its historic range, but two features were ubiquitous—the presence of longleaf pine itself and the regular occurrence of low-intensity fire.
 
Mississippi.
The Nature Conservancy’s Mississippi state program, for example, is on the cusp of a significant floodplain restoration project protecting nearly 6,000 acres through agricultural wetland easements at Loch Leven in Wilkinson County. An existing ring levee will be enhanced to reconnect the Mississippi River with its historic floodplain, benefiting critical wetland habitat and surrounding communities.
The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) in the Farm Bill includes two vital components: Agricultural Land Easements and Wetlands Reserve Easements. Agricultural Land Easements protect the long-term viability of the nation’s food supply by preventing conversion of productive working lands to non-agricultural uses, while Wetlands Reserve Easements improve water quality and supply, provide habitat for fish and wildlife and support outdoor recreation. 
In the 2018 Farm Bill, TNC successfully fought to restore funding for ACEP up to $450 million each year, better enhancing our ability to conserve land, water and the quality of life for millions of Americans.
 
The Pascagoula River.

The Pascagoula River is the largest undammed river in the contiguous 48 states.

THE SINGING RIVER
The Pascagoula is often called the "Singing River." According to legend, the peace-loving Pascagoula Indian tribe sang as they walked hand-in-hand into the river to avoid fighting with the invading Biloxi tribe. It is said that on quiet nights you can still hear them singing their death chant.
The Pascagoula Watershed also rings with the calls of 327 species of birds that breed among the sprawling cypress-tupelo swamps, oxbow lakes and pine ridges. Wading birds croon as they forage throughout the bayous, and graceful swallow-tailed kites hunt for prey in the extensive bottomland forest. Even the distinctive clattering bugle of the rare Mississippi sandhill crane can be heard within the pine savanna.
In 1974, The Nature Conservancy and other dedicated conservationists rallied to bring 35,000 acres of the watershed under public protection. This "grassroots epic," as E.O. Wilson called it, led to a river corridor presently buffered by almost 70,000 acres of public and private conservation lands.
 
TNC has remained committed to this river treasure, helping establish the Pascagoula River Basin Alliance in 2001. In recent years, with the help of partners, TNC acquired 2,100 acres along the Leaf and Pascagoula Rivers in the George and Greene County region of the Pascagoula River Basin—the chapter’s first land acquisition in more than 10 years.
In addition to making a conservation impact across the state, the purchase connected more than 450,000 contiguous acres between the De Soto National Forest and the Pascagoula Wildlife Management Area, now the largest tract of contiguous conserved lands in Mississippi. 
 
In October 2016, this land was transferred to the Mississippi Forestry Commission for future management and protection. The transfer happened approximately 40 years to the month after the Conservancy signed 32,000 acres of pristine bottomland over to the State of Mississippi to establish the Pascagoula River Wildlife Management Area (WMA). These two achievements bookend 40 years of conservation milestones in Mississippi and signal a bright future for conservation efforts. The Pascagoula Watershed remains a priority for The Nature Conservancy, from the forests to the coastal estuaries, and the Singing River itself.
 
We thank Ms. Bailey for her presentation and for her work preserving Mississippi’s natural treasures. She is shown below during her presentation. The background is a swamp in the Mississippi Delta.