Lower Pearl River Partnership

Pearl River © Amy Smith Kyle

The Lower Pearl Partnership works with partners on-the-ground to ensure protection of the watershed region between Mississippi and Louisiana in the two southernmost counties in Mississippi on the River, Pearl River County and Hancock County, and in the two southernmost parishes in Louisiana.

Named for the pearls found at the mouth of river by French explorers in the late 1600s, the Pearl River basin has a rich history and biological diversity. The Pearl and it’s major tributaries were traveled, hunted and fished by Choctaw and Acolapissas Indians that made their home on the banks of the river. Today, the Pearl River is a popular spot for fishing and boating by locals.

Habitats and Wildlife 
With it’s slow meandering rivers and creeks, expansive bottomland hardwood forests, healthy marsh complex and dense cypress-tupelo swamps, the Pearl River watershed supports a high diversity of wildlife, including seven federally listed species. The lower Pearl River's healthy marsh complex helps maintain a viable fisheries industry in Louisiana and Mississippi.

These habitats are important feeding and nesting habitat for many migratory birds, such as the Swallow-tailed kite (Elanoides forficatus). Often seen soaring over the river, Kites need at least 100,000 acres of contiguous forest to maintain a healthy population. Twenty-seven nesting pairs were observed in the lower Pearl River area in 2005.

The Pearl River supports between 120-140 species of fishes and approximately 40 species of freshwater mussels, making it one of the most species-rich river systems in North America. A fish with ancestry dating to prehistoric times, the Gulf sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi) makes a spring journey from salty marine waters in the Gulf to freshwater spawning areas in the Pearl River.

The Conservancy's Joint Project in Mississippi and Louisiana
To date, over 120,000 acres of land are protected for conservation in the lower Pearl River. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages five preserves (over 6,400 acres) and helped acquire 22,765 acres for the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge connecting it to the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area in Louisiana, as well as helping acquire 13,206 acres for the Old River Wildlife Management Area managed by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.

Although the Pearl River Basin still supports a diversity of wildlife, the past uses of the river as a major highway for commerce and transportation along with incompatible forestry, mining and development practices have threatened the biological integrity of the Pearl. To address conservation issues along the lower Pearl River, the Lower Pearl Partnership was created by The Nature Conservancy’s Mississippi and Louisiana Chapters and the Mississippi and Louisiana Departments of Environmental Quality in 2002. The Lower Pearl Partnership is working with a variety of stakeholders, including many agencies and landowners, to restore and protect ecologically significant areas on the Pearl River and its tributaries.

For more information on the Lower Pearl River Partnership contact Amy Smith Kyle, Project Coordinator.

The Nature Conservancy
Lower Pearl River Partnership Project

Brown Foundation Center

320 Hammond Highway, Suite 404

Metairie, LA  70005

(504) 831-9689