Pearl River

Wildlife Mississippi owns and has protected multiple tracts of land along the Pearl River, from its upper reaches to the coast, that are providing ecological and economic benefits to the communities around them.

Upper Pearl River

Wildlife Mississippi’s recent acquisition of 4,617 acres along the upper Pearl River was the organization’s largest-ever land purchase. The land was acquired from Resource Management Service, a Birmingham-based timberland investment company. The purchase expanded Wildlife Mississippi’s conservation efforts along the 444-mile-long Pearl to the river’s upper reaches.

With the acquisition, Wildlife Mississippi is protecting mature riparian, or riverfront, forests in Leake County upstream of Jackson, Mississippi’s capital and its largest city, and Ross Barnett Reservoir, the city’s drinking water source. Approximately 80,000 homes and businesses in Jackson and around Ross Barnett Reservoir get their drinking water from the Pearl River.

Rare turtles, migratory birds, and other wildlife benefit from this acquisition, too.

In Leake County, Wildlife Mississippi is raising additional funds to support the protection and restoration of the upper Pearl tract. About 500 acres of uplands will be restored to native longleaf pine habitat. The upper Pearl tract lies at the northern limit of the state’s longleaf pine range. Such habitats, more prevalent on the coast, can support a tremendous variety of plants and animals. Longleaf pine habitats once covered 90 million acres in the Southeast but have been reduced to about 3 million acres. They are considered critically imperiled in Mississippi.

Fannye Cook Natural Area

The organization also owns 3,000 acres of forested land at Flowood, across the river from Jackson, where it is developing public access and facilities for conservation education and recreation. Wildlife Mississippi acquired the Flowood tract in 2016. The tract was named the Fannye Cook Natural Area in honor of Fannye A. Cook, a pioneering conservationist who served as the first director of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.

Logtown

The organization also owns approximately 400 acres of coastal forestland at Logtown in Hancock County, where North America’s largest sawmill once stood. That land is being restored to a more natural condition.

Swinging Bridge

Wildlife Mississippi owns another 1,300 acres along the Pearl at Byram, south of Jackson near the swinging bridge, where wetland forests are being restored to replace those lost in commercial development projects elsewhere.

Species of Concern

More than a dozen species in the upper Pearl River basin, including the two rare turtles, are listed by the state of Mississippi as Species of Greatest Conservation Need, which means they are rare or declining and facing continuing threats such as habitat loss and pollution.

Various crayfish, salamanders, fish, mussels, and the alligator snapping turtle are also on the state list in the Pearl Basin, according to the latest State Wildlife Action Plan prepared by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. The ringed sawback turtle and the Pearl River map turtle are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Economic Benefits

The economic benefits of this project include a natural reduction in flood damages in the Jackson metropolitan area, which experienced some of its worst recorded flooding in February 2020. Riparian forests and associated wetlands naturally retain floodwaters and release them slowly, thus increasing flood-storage capacity. This action is also expected to reduce water-filtration costs for Jackson, which is already burdened with the high costs of maintaining its water and sewer infrastructure.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, for every $1 spent on source water protection, $27 is saved in water treatment costs.  Therefore, this $35 million source water protection project would save $945 million. for the rate payers of Jackson.  More than 80% of Jackson residents are African American, and 27% of residents live below the federal poverty level.