Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks

Scenic River Program Set for Macon

JACKSON - A public meeting will be held Monday Jan. 14, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. at the Noxubee Civic Center on Hwy 45 in Macon to consider nominating the Noxubee River in Noxubee County to the Mississippi Scenic Streams Stewardship Program. The Civic Center is located at 16291 Hwy 45 in Macon across the road from Noxubee County High School. Noxubee River landowners and interested citizens are invited to attend.

In 2006, The Noxubee County Board of Supervisors and Economic and Community Development Alliance requested that the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks review the Noxubee River's biological, physical, historical, and human use characteristics for scenic status eligibility.

A bill of eligibility for the river was written and passed in the 2007 Legislative Session.

"In preparation for a bill of full nomination, the Department holds a public meeting for comment after mailing notice letters to streamside landowners and publishing the meeting notice in local and statewide newspapers," Scenic Streams Coordinator Andrew Whitehurst said.

"An advisory council of landowners and local citizens evaluates the comments submitted at the public meeting and decides whether to go forward with full nomination."

Mississippi's Scenic Streams Stewardship Program began in 1999. The Wolf River in Pearl River, Stone, Hancock and Harrison Counties was the first nominated stream.

"The program is voluntary, non-regulatory and educational in nature," Whitehurst said. Other streams nominated include Tangipahoa River, Magee's Creek, Chunky River, Black Creek, Bear Creek in Tishomingo County, Red Creek, the Pascagoula River, and the Old East Fork of the Tombigbee River in Itawamba County.

The program promotes the use of Forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) to streamside landowners in an effort to maintain water quality during timber harvest or other clearing activities affecting land along streams. "Best Management Practices are a collection of common sense measures that conserve soil and minimize polluted runoff," Whitehurst said. Scenic nomination also carries state income tax incentives for landowners who provide long term streambank protection through the creation of conservation easements on their streamside land.

If the Noxubee River in Noxubee County is given scenic status, landowners are encouraged, but not required to participate in the stream stewardship effort. They are invited to participate by signing a non-binding agreement with the MDWF&P stating that when the landowner harvests timber along the river, the use of Forestry Best Management Practices will be called for in the timber sale contract with the buyer. Landowners are protecting themselves and their streams when they require the timber buyer or his contractor to use BMPs during timber harvest.

A special scenic streams state income tax credit toward certain costs of conservation easements becomes available to streamside landowners upon scenic nomination by the legislature. Conservation easements are different from the BMP agreements. The state tax credit of $10,000 toward easement creation is in addition to federal income tax deductions and estate tax reductions already available for conservation easements.

"Mississippi's scenic streams effort is very landowner-friendly because it is voluntary," Whitehurst advised. "If you don't want to participate or make any agreement, scenic nomination won't affect you. Landowners participating with a BMP agreement receive a certificate of appreciation, a copy of the state's forestry BMP manual, a set of stream fish notecards, a Conservation Outreach Newsletter subscription, and a copy of the newly published Mississippi Streamside Landowner's Handbook - a resource guide about Mississippi's streams and rivers."

Scenic stream nomination encourages private landowners in the conservation of the Noxubee River. "The river is an asset to Noxubee County, and we hope the river's scenic features and future health are assets that landowners and others can agree about protecting," Whitehurst said.

For more information contact Andrew Whitehurst, Scenic Streams Stewardship Program Coordinator for the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science at 601-354-7303 or by email andrew.whitehurst@mmns.state.ms.us.