Spring 1999

100 Years of Conservation In Mississippi
by James L. Cummins, Jr.

1897-1997

We are very fortunate that this visionary conservationist conducted an evaluation of the fish and wildlife resources in Mississippi. Below is a compilation of important events that has enabled Mississippi to be a leader in conservation. These events also make one proud to be a citizen of the Magnolia State.

1897 Congress passed the Appropriations Act which stated that forest reserves were to be managed for timber and water resources.

1898-99 Congress enacted legislation to aid states in enforcement of game laws.

1900 The Lacey Act was passed which made interstate transportation of wildlife killed in violation of state law a federal crime.

1901 Albert F. Ganier studied and photographed Mississippi Kites in the Vicksburg area.

1902 President Teddy Roosevelt hunts black bear near Onward, Mississippi. President Theodore Roosevelt, as guest of Harley Metcalfe, guided by a famous bear hunter named Holt Collier, went on a bear hunt near Onward. To ensure that the president shot a bear, the guide trapped a 600 pounder in advance and tied it to a tree. However, the President refused to shoot the captive bear. The story got out and a new toy, a stuffed bear, was named a teddy bear to honor the President¹s sportsmanship.

1903-04 Charles Stockard wrote and published records of birds of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Southwest Mississippi and Lowndes County.

1905 Congress reserved to itself and the President the right to create federal wildlife reserves and empowered the Secretary of Agriculture to prevent hunting, trapping, killing or capturing game animals "except under such regulations as may be prescribed from time to time." The U.S.D.A. Forest Service was created. Mississippi's first deer season was set by the legislature to extend from September 15 through March 1.

1906-07 The Agricultural Appropriations Act stated that the Forest Service shall aid in enforcement to protect fish and game.

1908 President Theodore Roosevelt organized a National Conservation Conference which was attended by 44 governors.

1909-10 A bag limit of five deer per year was established. Andrew Allison taught school in Gloster and Ellisville; he was Mississippi's first ornithologist of distinction. Allison provided the first reports of the winter birds of Hancock County and the summer birds of Tishimingo County.

1911-13 Intense logging in Mississippi.

1914 World War I begins. Last passenger pigeon dies.

1915 The Mississippi Legislature declared "only buck deer" to be legal game and retained the five deer season limit.

1916 In the summer, citizens of Bolivar County organized what is now considered the "Father" of Mississippi's Hunting Clubs - Merigold Hunting Club. The United States' international commitment to managing waterfowl was formalized in a treaty with Canada.

1917-18 World War I continues; ends in 1918.

1919 President Theodore Roosevelt died.

1920-21 Merigold Hunting Club was incorporated in Bolivar County.

1922 Anderson-Tully Company began its purchase of timberland in Mississippi.

1923-25 Intense logging in Mississippi.

1926 After working at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Frances A. Cook returned to Mississippi to promote wildlife conservation.

1927 On September 2, the Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration Act was passed. This provided federal aid to states with wildlife restoration projects. The Mississippi Association for the Conservation of Wildlife was organized with the help of the Parent-Teachers Association, Mississippi Forestry Association, the Federation of Women's Clubs and hunting and fishing clubs.

1928 Aldo Leopold, the father of Game Management, started conducting a nation wide survey of wildlife conditions. He said, "Wild turkey(in Mississippi) are steadily decreasing. They have been cleaned out of the upper ranges and there's barely a seed stock left in the largest swamps." The deer hunting season was reduced to November 15 through February 15 and the bag limit to three deer.

1929 Aldo Leopold stated, "With the possible exception of very limited parts of the Delta, deer can nowhere be said to persist in numbers justifying
hunting, ..."

1930 End of the intense logging period in Mississippi where most of the virgin timber was harvested.

1931 Deer stocked on Merigold Hunting Club.

1932 The Mississippi Game & Fish Commission was organized on June 16. Game Wardens were appointed on October 1.

1933 The Fish Rescue Program was initiated. The Soil Erosion Service is established in the U.S. Department of the Interior.
1934 Deer and turkey were purchased and released.

1935 The 74th Congress enacts the Soil Conservation Act establishing the Soil Conservation Service (SCS).

1936 Junior Game and Fish Commission organized. The Migratory Bird Treaty and the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act were passed by Congress. Initial land for Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge was purchased.

1937 Mexican quail were purchased and released. The Pittman Robertson Act was passed.

1938 The rough fish, gar and turtle control program started. The magazine, Mississippi Game & Fish, was started.

1939 The State Wildlife Museum opened. The Leaf River Refuge was established in Perry County.

1940 The beaver trapping program was initiated.

1941 A deer and turkey survey estimated 7,357 deer and 5,000 wild turkeys in the state.

1942 The Mississippi Game & Fish Commission was curtailed because of World War II.

1943 The deer population of Mississippi, as of April, 1943, is 10,498. Also, at this time, more than one-third of the state's deer population was in the counties of Issaquena, Yazoo, Sharkey and Warren.

1944-45 The Mississippi Game & Fish Commission was curtailed because of World War II.

1946 The Mississippi Legislature empowered the Mississippi Game & Fish Commission to regulate and enforce stream pollution laws.

The traveling museum of the Mississippi Game & Fish Commission. Photo courtesy of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.

1947 Yazoo Basin wildlife resources survey initiated.

1948 The Sardis Waterfowl Refuge was established. The Farm Game Habitat Project was initiated. The Choctaw Refuge was established.

1949 The mourning dove, squirrel, wild turkey and waterfowl research projects were initiated. Hugh L. White Wildlife Management Area (7,500 acres) was purchased in Marion County for $49,500.

1950 The Future Farmers of America/Four-H youth activities and farm game project was initiated. The Adams County Refuge was established.

1951-52 The Dingell-Johnson Federal Aid to Fisheries Restoration Act was passed by Congress. The turkey population in Mississippi is estimated to be 10,000. Lake Mary Crawford was constructed.

1953 708,000 lespedeza bicolor seedlings were distributed for quail. A state survey showed significant population increases of wild turkey in the counties of Bolivar and Tunica. The absence of flood waters and better protection were considered factors in bringing about these increases.

1954 Sunflower Wildlife Management Area was established.

1955 Mississippi Ornithological Society was organized.

1956-57 The Nuisance Beaver Control Program was started. SCS is assigned responsibility for the National Inventory of Soil and Water Needs.

1958-60 The Sunflower Greentree Waterfowl Project was constructed.

1961-62 The first antlerless deer season in Mississippi was held in Bolivar County.

An early whitetail deer and black bear hunt in Mississippi. Photo courtesy of the Mississipi Museum of Natural Science.

1963-64 Deer harvest reaches 14,820 legal deer.

1965-66 Game warden training was initiated at the law enforcement training academy.

1967-68 The state boat launching ramp program started.

1969 All counties in Mississippi were opened to deer hunting. The total harvest was 31,578 deer.

1970 The Malmasion Wildlife Management Area was acquired. Indian Bayou, in Leflore County, and greentree waterfowl projects were completed.

1971 The Hunter Safety Program was initiated. The Jackson Audubon Society was organized by Evelyn Tackett, Dudley Pecler and others. Okatibbee Waterfowl and Upland Game Management Area was established.

1972 Wild turkey harvest reached 5,691 gobblers in sixty counties.

1973 Alligators were stocked in the Delta. The new Mississippi Museum of Natural Science building was dedicated.

1974 A resident Canada goose flock was established on Malmasion Wildlife Management Area. The Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Program was launched; it was the brainchild of Avery Wood, Dave Morine and Bill Quisenberry.

1975 The Hunter Safety Program was recognized as the fifth best in nation. Hillside National Wildlife Refuge was purchased by U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Representative Charles Deaton introduced a bill to create the Pascagoula Wildlife Management Area; it passed 52-0. The Cooperative Wildlife Research Agreement was signed with Mississippi State University in Starkville.

1976 Record high deer harvest in 82 counties reaches 43,608. Wild turkey harvest exceeds 8,300 in spring and fall seasons in 71 counties. First state waterfowl stamp (31,000 sold).

1977 Mississippi Game & Fish Commission negotiates purchase of McIntyre Scatters. Congress passes the Soil and Water Resource Conservation Act.

1978 Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge established with the initial purchase of the Curran tract.

1979-80 Morgan Brake and Matthews Brake National Wildlife Refuges were established. Mississippi's turkey population exceeds 200,000 birds.

1981 The Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation released 400 ring-necked pheasants in Humphreys County.

1982 The Mississippi Native Plant Society tours Tishimingo County.

1983 Dr. George Hurst, Professor at Mississippi State University, was instrumental in initiating the Cooperative Wild Turkey Research Project.

1984 I began working in the summers for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation at Turcotte Research Laboratory.

1985 The Wallop-Breaux Federal Aid in Fisheries Restoration Act passed Congress. Kemper and Neshoba County lakes opened to the public.

1986 The U.S. Department of Interior picks James D. Range, a frequent duck hunter to Mississippi, as a Board Member of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

1987 I graduate in Fisheries Management from Mississippi State University; in May, I began working on my Master of Science Degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management at Virginia Tech.

1988 The new aquarium is available at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. It holds 10,000 gallons.

1989 Whitetail Deer herd approaches 1.7 million.

1990 Delta Wildlife Foundation started by 100 agricultural and business leaders in the Mississippi Delta.

1991 The Wetland Reserve Program begins enrolling land to restore wetlands in Mississippi.

1992 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service extends the duck season from January 5 to January 20.

1993 Delta Wildlife Foundation begins publishing Delta Wildlife Magazine.

1994 Mississippi landowners impound over 90,000 acres of winter water for waterfowl.

1995 Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks buys land with the $10 million in bonding authority from the Mississippi Legislature.

1996 Senator Thad Cochran introduces, and the President signs into law, the new Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program. The exhibit, "For The Sake Of Future Generations: The History Of Organized Wildlife Conservation In Mississippi Since 1890" was established at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science with a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council.

1997 The Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, or Wildlife Mississippi, as it is commonly called is formed; its first president is Peyton Self; its first chairman is Clarke Reed; its Honorary Chairmen are Thad Cochran and Kirk Fordice.

This article compiled by James L. Cummins, Jr., Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Special thanks goes to Mary Stevens, Librarian for the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, for her help with this article.