Conservation Corner: November 19, 2001

Ferris Donates Conservation Easement On Big Black
by James L. Cummins

Grey Ferris of Vicksburg recently donated a conservation easement to the Mississippi Land Trust, Mississippi's largest land trust. This donation includes bottomland hardwoods and a small portion of pasture on the farm covering 2,114.20 acres.

According to Leila C. Wynn, President of the Mississippi Land Trust, part of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, "With the help of conservation-minded landowners like Grey this portion of the Big Black River will be protected for future generations. We are grateful to the Ferris family for donating this easement."

According to Ferris, "Those of us that are blessed with the ownership of natural resources have a responsibility of being good stewards of the land. We should all strive to ensure that we leave our lands in better shape than we found them."

Ferris Farms has a very colorful history. It was purchased by E.B. Ferris in 1918. Mr. Ferris was the founding director of Mississippi's Agricultural Experiment Stations. He employed his vast knowledge of diversified agricultural practices in the management of his farm. In 1935, his son, Bill Ferris, graduated from Millsaps College and moved to the farm, where there were many sharecroppers. As the country's economy improved, the sharecroppers left the farm in search of a better life. Bill and his bride, Shelby, were busy raising five children and decided to begin the slow process of restoring the land and creating their own vision for the farm. The bottomland hardwoods of the Big Black River were allowed to return.

The Ferris family were pioneers in the region in employing agricultural conservation techniques. They terraced the fields and provided other erosion control measures to protect the farm. Their son, Grey Ferris, left his law practice in Vicksburg in 1974 to return to the farm where he works and lives today with his family. Shelby and her daughter, Martha Ferris Kostmayer, also reside on Ferris Farms. Martha and her family occupy a house built in 1825 by B.L.C. Wailes, the first president of Washington-Jefferson College and founder of the Mississippi Historical Society. The University of Alabama has identified Native American burial mounds on the property. General Grant once marched across the property to Vicksburg.

Today Ferris Farm has grown to over 6,000 acres. During the past three years, all cropland has been converted to pasture and there are over 1,000 cows on the property.

"If you are a landowner in Mississippi and care about fish and wildlife resources, you need to strongly consider a conservation easement," concluded Ferris.

For more information about conservation easements and/or the Mississippi Land Trust, write: Mississippi Land Trust, P.O. Box 23, Stoneville, MS 38776.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.