HABITAT DESCRIPTION

Less than 1 percent of native prairie, a critically endangered habitat, exists in Mississippi today. Blackland Prairie remnants occur in the Northeastern counties, from the Tennessee line south and east to the Alabama line. The Jackson Prairie region extends from Yazoo City east southeast to the Alabama line, with the most extensive prairie openings in Bienville National Forest. Most prairie remnants are small (less than 100 acres). A few are larger.

WILDLIFE MISSISSIPPI PROJECTS

• Wildlife Mississippi’s geographic focus is on the Black Belt prairie region (Chickasaw, Clay, Lee, Lowndes, Monroe, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties.
• Outreach and technical assistance to private landowners interested in prairie restoration.
• Participation in a native prairie symposium.
• Protect, restore and enhance of private and public lands.
• Promotion of prescribed burning and control of invasive species.
• Promotion of conservation easements on private lands.
• Development of incentives for private landowners to protect, restore and enhance longleaf pine.

POPULAR SPECIES

White-tailed deer, wild turkey, northern bobwhite and rabbits.

SPECIES OF CONCERN

Northern bobwhite, prairie warbler, grasshopper sparrow, American woodcock and suite of native herbaceous plants.

BENEFITS

• Well-managed sites, such as Pulliam Prairie in Chickasaw County, harbor hundreds of plant species, including many rare and imperiled plants.
• Nature study (of plant, bird and insect diversity) can be rewarding.
• Well-managed sites can have sustainable populations of northern bobwhite and white-tailed deer.

View or download landowner handbook.