State
Monticello opposes lake project
Daily Leader
The mayor of Monticello believes the One Lake Project in Jackson could adversely affect the Pearl River at Atwood Water Park. Martha Watts said the city is in for an uphill battle against the damming plans.
Settlement reached over clean coal fiasco in Mississippi
AP
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Years of contention and threatened electric rate increases ended Tuesday as utility regulators approved a settlement declaring how much Mississippi Power Co. customers should pay for their share of a troubled $7.5 billion power plant.
Hunters would have to report deer, turkey harvests under bill House passes
Clarion Ledger
Hunters would be required to report deer or turkeys they harvest starting in 2019 under a bill the House passed on Tuesday.
Regional
Red wolves may be going extinct in the wild – again
Washington Post
ALLIGATOR RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.C.
This sprawling mix of swamp and forest is the only place in the world where red wolves live in the wild, and on a breezy afternoon Ron Sutherland set out to find one.
Will the EPA audit NC’s environmental regulators?
Star News
ILMINGTON --It remains uncertain if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will audit the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s administration of two federal programs, as requested two weeks ago by a quartet of Republican state senators.
National
Dem senator questions EPA on stark decline in grant awards
The Hill
The top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sent a letter to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tuesday, calling into question a dramatic decrease in grant funding awarded by the agency in the past year.
EPA paves way for WV DEP to enforce state water quality standards
Gazette-Mail
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has given the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection the green light to regulate the way the state enforces water pollution permit limits.
N.J. enlists in fight against Trump to protect clean water
NJ.com
The Garden State is going to court over the Trump administration's efforts to rollback Obama-era water protections.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal joined nine other states Tuesday in suing the Environmental Protection Agency over the federal agency's suspension of the Clean Water Rule, an Obama-era regulation that expanded federal clean water protections.
Navy to retest well water near Fentress for contaminants
Virginian-Pilot
The Navy plans to retest well water near Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress for contaminants found in a firefighting foam that was used for decades at the airfield where fighter jets simulate landings on aircraft carriers.
GOP lawmakers take aim at WHO agency over Roundup ingredient
AP
Republican lawmakers are threatening to cut off U.S. funding for the World Health Organization’s cancer research program over its finding that the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup is probably carcinogenic to humans.
Press releases
Mississippi Outdoors: Reinvigorating a Culture
By Russ Walsh and Rick Hamrick
MDWFP
Claiborne’s vivid narrative provides us a brief snapshot of a bygone landscape. Mississippi’s once-thriving and fire-maintained pine-grasslands, native prairies, and upland hardwoods were host to lush herbaceous plant communities and plentiful wildlife.
Claiborne was witness to a vibrant ecosystem that was shaped and maintained by centuries of frequent fire. Native Americans readily burned forests and grasslands for warfare, hunting, brush clearing, and other uses. Early European settlers recognized the significance of fire on the landscape and continued the practice. Fire was not only an indispensable tool for generations of Southerners, it was a deep-rooted part of the culture.
The early 1900s brought stiff opposition to the widespread use of fire across the Southeast. The Dixie Crusaders were a group of anti-fire zealots sent to rail against the “evils” of woods burning and promote forest fire prevention. Their revolutionary propaganda was relentless in influencing the younger generations’ sentiment toward fire. This wave of anti-fire campaigns would be followed by the now-infamous message of Smokey Bear. Collectively, these efforts would be widely successful in instilling a lasting fear of woods burning and severing fire from the landscape. Today, the absence of fire in Mississippi’s forests and grasslands is glaringly evident.
Why fire?
Before human intervention, natural fires were most likely initiated by lightning strikes during drier conditions of late spring and summer months. Depending upon weather patterns, fires probably occurred regularly at times and kept fuel loads at a low level so that fire intensity was low to moderate. However, during drier times, natural fires might have been intense and burned extensive acres.
These periodic fires maintained the plant communities that make up the diverse and unique forests and grasslands of Mississippi. Many native trees, grasses, and herbaceous, broadleaf plants are adapted to fire and even depend upon it to persist. Fire exposes soil for seed germination, increases growing space by reducing woody competition and plant litter, recycles nutrients bound up in dead plant residue, and stimulates germination of some seeds. Depending on fire frequency, intensity, and timing, fire alters plant communities by impeding the growth of some species and favoring the growth and persistence of others. In the absence of fire, less fire-tolerant vegetation begins to colonize sites and can become dominant when fire is excluded for long periods of time—a condition that is often exhibited at present.
Just as plant communities were shaped by fire, many wildlife species depend upon periodic burning to maintain structure and composition of habitats necessary for them to thrive. Wildlife populations might have fluctuated with the frequency of natural fires or other disturbances that affected plant communities to which they were adapted. However, as fire decreased on the landscape, many species markedly declined with the loss of suitable habitat. For species such as bobwhite quail, gopher tortoise, Bachman’s sparrow, etc., an increase in populations is highly dependent on increasing fire use on the landscape.
Prescribed burning
Early Mississippi inhabitants faced fewer challenges than fire practitioners of today, thus little planning was required. Given today’s urbanized landscape and a cultural fear of fire, burning on the landscape is a much more involved process. “Prescribed burning” in the present-day context is defined as an intentionally set, but planned and carefully managed fire to accomplish specific objectives. Thus, prescribed fire must be used in a manner that makes every effort not to pose a danger to society or property. Fire should certainly be respected, but not necessarily feared.
Fire must be used as a management tool to improve wildlife habitat, forest health, and mitigate wildfire risk. Multiple national forests and wildlife refuges in Mississippi are large, fire-maintained landscape that provides these functions. However, 78 percent of Mississippi’s landscape is privately owned; thus, to restore fire-maintained ecosystems at a large scale, private land must be engaged in prescribed fire efforts.
However, the lack of landowners engaged in fi reapplication is a significant hurdle. Further, private land parcels continue to decrease in size, thus increasing fragmentation of fi re-suited habitats. Conservation partners recognize the lack of for-hire burn contractors, and thus the critical need for more landowners to become certified and sufficiently experienced to conduct their own burning. The Mississippi Prescribed Burn Act of 1992 recognizes prescribed burning as a landowner right and provides a sound legal platform for certified burn managers. Thus, partners are continually working to provide educational and technical training opportunities to encourage land-owners to become burn managers.
Claiborne would find a markedly different landscape if he traveled the Magnolia State today. The forests and grasslands he viewed were shaped by robust force that was ingrained in the Southern culture. Ultimately, to have sustained use of fire on the landscape, the fire-culture must be reinvigorated among landowners and the general public. The picturesque piney woods and heart-racing quail covey rises depend on it.
Russ Walsh is the MDWFP Wildlife Bureau Director. Rick Hamrick is a Habitat and Small Game Biologist with MDWFP.
Working Lands for Wildlife Initiative Targets Yazoo Darter
Jackson, Miss. – USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is accepting applications for the Yazoo Darter Initiative. Applications that are received by March 16, 2018, will be considered in the first ranking period.
The Yazoo Darter (Etheostoma raneyi) habitat is exclusively within the Yocona and Little Tallahatchie River watersheds. This small species of fish typically inhabit small streams with a variety of streambed types including silt, clay, sand, and gravel. This project will allow Mississippi landowners in these watersheds located in portions of Benton, Calhoun, Lafayette, Marshall, Pontotoc Tippah, Union, and Yalobusha Counties to enhance and create habitat for the Yazoo Darter.
In recent years, Yazoo Darter populations have been in decline, bringing the long-term viability of the species to the concern of scientific experts. Population declines are thought to be the result of poor water quality and habitat modifications such as stream channelization and improper installation of culverts and other stream crossing structures. These serve as fish passage barriers that could significantly limit access to habitat needed for migration, breeding, spawning, feeding and sheltering.
The Yazoo Darter project is part of the Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) partnership between the NRCS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the landowner, aimed to establish conservation practices that assist with the restoration of wildlife habitat for at-risk species.
“This WLFW partnership will assist landowners with planning and implementing a variety of conservation practices that will benefit the Yazoo Dater, as well as other local aquatic species close to being endangered,” stated Glynda Clardy, Natural Resources Conservation Service Wildlife Biologist.
Applications for all NRCS financial-assistance programs are accepted on a continuous sign-up process, however specific sign-up deadlines are established to rank, contract and fund qualified tracts of land. Applications for the Yazoo Darter initiative received by March 16, 2018, will be considered for funding in the first ranking period.
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USDA-NRCS Soil Health Initiative in Mississippi
Jackson, Miss. – USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has established a statewide Soil Health Initiative that focuses on building soil health and productivity. Mississippi cropland and pastureland are eligible for this initiative. Applications received by March 16, 2018, will be considered in the first ranking period.
This Soil Health Initiative will assist to improve the visibility, accessibility, and participation in soil health programs and technical services under the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). The EQIP programs help to reduce the carbon footprint, increase water infiltration and improve wildlife habitat, all while helping farmers see better crop yields.
“As the world population grows, so does the demand for food production,” stated Kevin Kennedy, Acting NRCS State Conservationist in Mississippi. “A growing number of farmers are using soil health management systems to improve the health and functions of their soil.”
More farmers are increasing their soil’s organic matter and improving microbial activity by practicing good soil health principles. The top resource concerns in Mississippi are associated with water quality. The Soil Health Initiative helps to address sediment & nutrient reduction, soil quality, water quality, and water supply. Farmers are addressing these concerns by practicing diverse crop rotation by planting diverse species and reducing tillage.
“We recognize the growing interest in soil health management,” stated Kennedy. “For this initiative, we hope to see more implementation of conservation practices that support soil health.”
Landowners interested in participating in the Soil Health Initiative may apply at their local USDA Service Center/ NRCS office. NRCS financial-assistance programs offer a continuous sign-up; however, applications received by March 16, 2018, will be considered in the first ranking period.
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