Many of Wildlife Mississippi’s habitat conservation projects help provide quality
hunting experiences on public and private lands throughout the state. Hunting is
deeply ingrained in Mississippi’s culture, and it is big business. Mississippi residents
and visitors spend $915 million annually on hunting trips and equipment, according
to the most recent survey of wildlife-associated
activities.
Through its Wildlife Habitat Seed Program, Wildlife Mississippi sells low-cost seed
for establishing food plots on private and public lands. To date, seed purchased
through the twice-annual sales has been used to plant approximately 150,000 acres,
mostly on private land. Wildlife Mississippi has also donated decoy deer to the
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks to help curtail poaching.
Through its efforts to promote sound conservation policies, Wildlife Mississippi
has helped provide additional hunting opportunities by securing adequate funding
for acquisition and management of public lands used for hunting such as national
wildlife refuges and state wildlife management areas, promoted management of moist-soil
areas to provide more wintering habitat for waterfowl and helped create the Mississippi
Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus.