None The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi Press Releases Search All Press Releases Melinda Lyman, Project Coordinator (601) 558-2931

Pine Burr Area Boy Scouts Assist The Nature Conservancy to Restore Habitat for Rare Species

Camp Shelby, Mississippi — Summer 2007 — The Pine Burr area Boy Scouts recently assisted The Nature Conservancy’s Camp Shelby field office staff, the Mississippi Army National Guard and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to restore habitat for the native Camp Shelby burrowing crayfish.

The burrowing crayfish is only found on the Camp Shelby training site and no where else in the world. The small, terrestrial crustaceans require the open habitat found on Cypress Creek pitcher plant wetlands at Camp Shelby and DeSoto National Forest.

The habitat where the crayfish is found had become dense with loblolly pines. Growth of these and other tree species shade out natural habitat for the Camp Shelby burrowing crayfish. Scouts thinned out the small trees under the supervision and direction of The Nature Conservancy’s biologist–James Lee, Scout Leader–Thomas Rauch, the USFS’s botanist–Tate Thriffely, and the Mississippi Army National Guard Natural Resource Manager–Major Robert Lemire. Restoring the habitat will allow the crayfish, along with hundreds of other flora and fauna that depend on this type of natural habitat to thrive.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.  To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.