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Camp Shelby 

 

Black Pine Snake

Black Pine Snake

© T.M. Dickinson

Black Pine Snake

Not much research exists on the black pine snake, a candidate species for federal listing. The Conservancy staff at Camp Shelby are tracking black pine snakes to collect valuable information about home-range size, hatching dates, use of trees, forage items and times of breeding for this species. 

The Conservancy continues to provide the Mississippi Army National Guard management expertise and information on federally listed species, including gopher tortoises and Louisiana quillwort, and candidate species for federal listing, such as black pine snakes and Camp Shelby burrowing crayfish. Conservancy scientists also perform research on gopher tortoise habitat, cogongrass ecology and control, black pine snake ecology, and Camp Shelby burrowing crayfish distribution and habitat.

Since January 2005, the Conservancy documented three plants and several animals previously unreported at Camp Shelby. The three plants are dudaim melon, large yellow vetch and tropical bushmint. The animals are oak toad, upland chorus frog, eastern spadefoot toad, Mediterranean gecko, western pygmy rattlesnake and five mussels (elephant ear, freshwater Asiatic clam, purple pimpleback, Texas lilliput, southern rainbow). Unfortunately, the plants, the Mediterranean gecko and the freshwater Asiatic clam are exotic species.

The number of gopher tortoises is declining throughout their range. The Conservancy has collected habitat data in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Army Corps of Engineers’ Construction Engineering Research Laboratory to investigate effects of military activity on gopher tortoise habitat, health, behavior and reproduction. Efforts will continue to collect data on the gopher tortoises in order to further their protection.

For more information on The Nature Conservancy's work at Camp Shelby contact Melinda Lyman, Project Coordinator/Botanist.

Camp Shelby Conservation Program
CSTS-ENV, Building 6678
Camp Shelby, MS  39407-5500
(601) 558-2931