Wow! What a spring we’ve had in Mississippi. Mother Nature has dealt us some pretty tough weather. The tornados and wind storms in Northern Mississippi were mind-boggling. We’ve also had high water on the Mississippi River which inundated the river counties with unimaginable flooding. These disasters destroyed and disrupted the homes and jobs of many of our fellow Mississippians. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all. I can remember back in 1973 helping relatives scoop mud out of their deer camp on Steele Bayou. The water came to the top of the doors. We thought it was a “100 year flood” and we’d never see water like that again. During this flood, that same building had water to the top of the chimney, which is about 7 feet higher than the water level in 1973. I say that to remind you to never underestimate Mother Nature.
It is encouraging to see how our fellow Mississippians react to these disasters. While we would not turn down help from the federal government, we didn’t sit around waiting for outside help. The volunteerism from our fellow Mississippians and the others who came to help from out-of-state renews our faith in humanity and our fellow citizens.
This reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite actors and a fellow Mississippian, Morgan Freeman. At Mississippi Rising, a fundraiser for the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund, the teary-eyed Freeman said, “We (Mississippi) will rise again. Mississippi crawled out of the rubble and helped their neighbors and got about the business of surviving.” I hope you will help the victims of our recent disasters in Mississippi take the next step in the hard walk of a new life – to get about the business of living.
It will take some time to evaluate the effect these situations have had on our wildlife along the river and other areas of our state. We will see how long it takes for certain species to reclaim these inundated areas. It will certainly have a detrimental effect on our turkey hatch and certain other species, but history tells us a lot of our native species are extremely resilient.
There is also a silver lining – the reduction in the feral hog population that occurred as a result of the flooding. However, we’re getting reports of new hog infestations from areas close to these flooded areas where there had never been a problem in the past. On the bright side, hunting season is only a few weeks away. Most sportsmen are looking forward to the opening of the season. People are busy at camp houses and planting food plots.
We urge everyone to be safe during hunting season, and be mindful to be good stewards of the land Mississippi has provided to us. It is discouraging to drive the highways and byways of our beautiful state and see the trash and litter indiscriminately tossed on the side of the roads. Let’s all try to lead by example and teach our younger generation to be mindful of what we leave behind. We all need to leave Mississippi in better condition than we found it.