NRCS DATA SHOWS GAIN IN WETLANDS - The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Bruce Knight recently announced agricultural wetland net gains of about 263,000 acres between 1997 and 2003. The results are based on new data in the NRCS National Resources Inventory (NRI), an annual statistical survey of natural resource conditions and trends on nonfederal land in the 48 contiguous states. Wetland gains have been most prevalent in the central part of the nation where there are extensive agriculture operations and the highest level of participation in conservation programs authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill. The NRI data show that since 1997 annual wetland losses on all lands have been on a decline, while annual agricultural wetland gains have been increasing. According to W.J. Van Devender, President of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, “The Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), which is administered by NRCS, has played the greatest role in increasing the acreage of wetlands. Mississippi ranks number three in the nation in the number of acres enrolled in the WRP.”

HOPPER SELECTED FOR FOREST RESOURCES DEAN - A Mississippi State University (MSU) forestry alumnus is the new dean of the university's College of Forest Resources and director of its Forest and Wildlife Research Center. George M. Hopper assumed his new duties July 15, pending formal approval by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning. The Vicksburg native succeeds interim dean Bob L. Karr, who has retired after 29 years of service. MSU's College of Forest Resources includes the departments of forestry, forest products and wildlife and fisheries. Hopper has served for 11 years as head of the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. He previously was a professor for 11 years in the department. A specialist in hardwood silviculture and the biology of oaks, Hopper earlier worked for Mississippi State's forestry department and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Anderson Tully Lumber Co. In addition to bachelor and master degrees from MSU, he holds a doctorate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Besides holding the title of Society of American Foresters Fellow, he is president elect for the Southern region of the National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges. Hopper's appointment was announced jointly by Vance Watson and Peter Rabideau. Watson is vice president for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine; Rabideau is provost and vice president for academic affairs. Watson said, “Dr. Hopper will lead the departments of forestry, forest products and wildlife and fisheries toward national prominence in teaching, research and service.” Rabideau added, “He also will help strengthen the contributions of natural resources to the economic and environmental welfare of the people of Mississippi.”

SPORTSMEN LICENSE SPORTS WILD TURKEY - The new Sportsman License along with all licenses issued by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks went on sale June 20 at all license agent locations and by calling 1 800 5 GO HUNT. Licenses may also be purchased on line. Mississippi's new Sportsman License for 2005/06 will feature something dear to the heart of many hunters. It's a mature Eastern wild turkey in full strut. The gobbler was photographed by Brandon photographer Joe Mac Hudspeth, Jr. This is the ninth year that the state wildlife department has used Hudspeth's photography on this license. Officials say the sportsman's license print series has sold well and has become a collector's item. A portion of the proceeds from each print sale is used by the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks for wildlife management. Hudspeth contributes wildlife photographs regularly to Mississippi Outdoors and other regional and national magazines.

LAUREL NATIVE, RAT-L-TRAP INVENTOR LEWIS DIES AT 85 - Bill Lewis, a Laurel native and former Jackson resident who designed one of fishing's most popular bass lures, died June 17 at his Alexandria, Louisiana home after a lengthy illness. He was 85. Working in the kitchen of his Jackson home in the late 1960s, Lewis created the Rat L Trap lipless crankbait that revolutionized the sport of bass fishing. He moved his lure business to Alexandria and Bill Lewis Lures and the Rat L Trap became an industry leader. His “traps” earned him three Best Lure Design awards from Field and Stream. BASS honored Lewis by including him in its listing of the most influential people in bass fishing history. Lewis was raised in Laurel, became a star football player for Laurel High, which won the state championship. He was a World War II B24 bomber pilot and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross after completing 30 missions and volunteering for 10 more to fly gasoline for General Patton's troops in Europe. After a brief career as a commercial artist, Lewis returned to Mississippi and opened the Bill Lewis Lure Company, said his son Buddy Lewis. After years of selling spinnerbaits and soft plastic worms out of the back of his car, he came up with the unique concept of the Rat L Trap. “He spent many days on lakes such as Toledo Bend pitching his now famous Rat L Trap lure one on one to every fisherman he met,” Buddy Lewis said. “Dad often would pull out a pocket knife and cut off a lure tied to a fisherman's line leaving him in total astonishment. He would quickly replace the lure with his then unknown Rat L Trap along with a guarantee that if they didn't catch twice as many fish on the Trap he would buy them two of their lures. Dad always said he never had to honor a single guarantee made on his lure.” Buddy Lewis said the company has sold more than 150 million Rat L Trap lures, and that Bill Lewis gave away at least one million more.

BEAR CREEK, PASCAGOULA RIVER ARE NEWEST NOMINATED SCENIC STREAMS - With the enactment of the nomination bills in March of the 2005 Regular Legislative Session, Bear Creek and the Pascagoula River became Mississippi's sixth and seventh scenic streams. Bear Creek runs through Tishomingo County, and the Pascagoula runs through George and Jackson Counties. Nominated in past years are the Wolf River (coastal); Tangipahoa River (Pike); Magee's Creek (Walthall); Chunky River (Newton, Lauderdale and Clarke); and Black Creek (Lamar, Forrest, Perry, Stone, George and Jackson). Streamside landowners along Bear Creek and the Pascagoula will receive letters of notice of the stream's new status and are asked to consider making voluntary arrangements to use Forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) when harvesting timber on their stream bank properties. An annual appeal for BMP agreements also goes to landowners along the other five streams. Voluntarily made BMP agreements mean that landowners will call for the use of Forestry BMPs in timber deeds (contacts of sale) if and when they sell timber along the banks of the nominated streams or rivers. BMPs help prevent sediment and polluted rain water runoff from entering streams and keeps banks stable during timber harvest operations. BMPs are water quality improvement measures that include: leaving streamside management zones (vegetated buffers) along banks of perennial streams; pre harvest planning of roads, skid trails and loading areas; after harvest installation of water bars on logging roads and skid trails; and the general design of roads and skid trails for good drainage so that storm water runoff does not create excessive rutting or erosion problems. Recommended widths of streamside management zones (SMZs) on banks vary from 30 feet for flat sites to 60 feet for sites with slopes greater than 40 percent (40 feet of elevation change in 100 feet of horizontal distance). This is according to the Mississippi Forestry Commission's current recommendations in BMPs for Forestry in Mississippi (2000). However, many streamside landowners prefer a “rule of thumb” of 100 foot wide SMZs. This is greater than the minimum suggested widths, but they feel this is more protective of aesthetic values along their stream sections.

WITHERS RECEIVES NATIONAL 4-H AWARD - John D. “Jack” Withers, Jr., is a high school science and technology teacher who lives in Woodville, and for the past 18 years he has been heavily involved in the 4 H shooting sports program. For his hard work and dedication to 4 H Shooting Sports Program he is one of six individuals who were honored at the 25th anniversary of the National 4 H Wildlife and Fisheries Volunteer Leader Recognition Program held in Arlington, Virginia. The six 4 H leaders from across the U.S. were recognized for their exemplary contributions to youth education at the conference held March 16 19. This program annually recognizes the top adult volunteer leaders in the nation who assist 4 H youth in learning about wildlife and fisheries conservation and management. The youth education programs are conducted nationwide by the state and county cooperative extension services as part of their educational mandate. Nationally, there are over 6.5 million youth enrolled in 4 H programs, with almost 500,000 adult volunteer leaders who cooperate with the extension educators to conduct hands on educational programs in both rural and urban areas. In the early 1970s he joined the Southwest Gun Club in McComb and began shooting competitively. He shot smallbore (.22) rifle and pistol, but then became interested in high powered rifle shooting. He won the Mississippi State High Power Service Rifle Championship in 1980, shooting the M14 rifle. And he also shot on the Mississippi State High Power Rifle Team in the national matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, in 1984 and 1985. In the 1980s 4 H had programs in state high schools, but these activities were mostly related to homemaking and farming. However, when the 4 H Field and Stream program was developed it included the 4 H Shooting Sports program which had several kinds of shooting activities. It was then that Withers saw a way where he could use his interest in shooting to be a volunteer instructor for 4 H youth. With others like Withers involved, the 4 H shooting program began to grow and today it involves some 800 shooters, with a large percentage being girls. Withers has served as a level I 4 H instructor for 18 years, and became a Level II instructor in 2001. He has also coached the Mississippi 4 H State Rifle and Pistol teams at the National Invitational Matches for 2 years, and served as a 4 H State Executive Committee member for several years. Over the past 20 years he has taught firearm safety, marksmanship and responsibility to several hundred young people. In 2002 Withers was selected as Mississippi Hunter Education Volunteer of the Year by the Mississippi Wildlife Federation. As a teacher, Withers says he sees the 4 H Shooting Sports Program as a very powerful tool in positive development of young people. Many of his young shooters have told him that the concentration skills they learned in shooting have helped them with their school work. He says that he believes 4 H activities develop qualities such as fairness, work ethics, patriotism, honesty and perseverance. While attending the national conference the Withers family stayed at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C.