Special Donation to Improve Gopher Tortoise Habitat
Joint Mississippi-Louisiana Stewardship Team Putting Fire on the Ground

Gopher Tortoise Hatchling © Matt Hinderliter / TNC

In 2006, The Mississippi Chapter received a generous gift of $200,000 from an anonymous donor to enhance gopher tortoise habitat in south Mississippi. The Conservancy has used these funds to improve habitat at Sweetbay Bogs Preserve, Old Fort Bayou Mitigation Bank, Willie Farrell Brown Preserve, Jackson Sandhills Preserve and Charles M. Deaton Preserve. Enhancement and restoration are being accomplished by using prescribed fire, controlling invasive species, opening up areas around gopher tortoise burrows and planting longleaf pines. This work is accomplished by the newly formed Central Gulf Co-op Team, a group of Nature Conservancy staff working jointly in coastal Mississippi and Louisiana to implement stewardship activities on the landscape.

In addition to work on its preserves, the donation also enabled the Conservancy to partner with Tradition, a master community in Harrison County, to remove invasive nonnative cogongrass and Chinese tallow trees from the community’s natural areas. This site is adjacent to one of only two known breeding ponds for the globally endangered gopher frog. Thus, this work benefited not only habitat for the gopher tortoise, but also habitat for the gopher frog.

For more information on Conservation in Mississippi, please contact Lisa Yager, Director of Conservation.

The Nature Conservancy
Mississippi Field Office
405 Briarwood Drive, Suite 101
Jackson, MS 39206
(601) 709-4756