The Mississippi Land Trust, Mississippi’s largest land trust, had a banner year in 2003. Since the inception of the Mississippi Land Trust in 1998, the Land Trust had acquired 20 easements totaling approximately 14,500 acres. By the end of 2003, the Land Trust had acquired another 19 easements totaling approximately 14,000 acres. This brings the total number of easements the Mississippi Land Trust is holding up to 39 with a combined acreage of approximately 28,500 acres and with a value of approximately $33 million. According to Kevin Brice, Program Coordinator for the Southeastern Section of the Land Trust Alliance, this puts the Mississippi Land Trust in the top 10 of Land Trusts in the Southeastern US for number of easements held and acres protected.


The conservation easements that the Mississippi Land Trust holds cover 18 different counties in the state representing a diversity of habitat types from longleaf pine to bottomland hardwoods. The addition of the new conservation easements represents an ongoing effort by the Mississippi Land Trust to preserve and protect Mississippi’s natural heritage. Those of us who live in the state know that Mississippi is blessed with a rich array of habitat types from prairies and red clay hills in the north to bottomlands and bayous in the delta to the coastal savannas and longleaf pine forests found in the south. Mississippians are blessed to have such a rich and diverse natural landscape. It has, and will continue to be the goal of the Mississippi Land Trust to protect these lands and insure that future generations will be able to enjoy the rich natural beauty of the state.

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