Oak Seedlings Now Available Through Mississippi Acorns for Wildlife Program
by NWTF
EDGEFIELD, S.C.
MISSISSIPPI — Landowners statewide now can improve their properties and habitat for wild turkeys and other wildlife by purchasing native oak seedlings at a reduced cost through Mississippi's Acorns for Wildlife Initiative.
Mississippi's Acorns for Wildlife Initiative provides high quality, hard mast-producing native oak seedlings to Mississippi landowners, and is made possible by partnerships between the National Wild Turkey Federation's Mississippi Chapter and Greater Jackson Chapter, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP), Mississippi Forestry Commission and the Mississippi State University Extension Service.
According to NWTF Regional Biologist Joe Koloski, hard mast, or nuts such as acorns, are an excellent wildlife food source during winter months, but are in short supply throughout much of the state. The quality native oak seedlings offered to landowners will attract and benefit wildlife on the property while improving opportunities for hunters and wildlife watchers.
Koloski emphasizes the importance of planting native seedlings to improve habitat conditions. "The high quality native oak seedlings provided through this program are grown from acorns collected in Mississippi," Koloski says. "Trees grown from these native acorns will adapt to conditions in Mississippi more easily than seedlings grown from non-native acorns."
The NWTF Greater Jackson Chapter contributed $4,000 to this project, and the Mississippi State Chapter contributed $5,000 from the NWTF Hunting Heritage Super Fund.
Administered jointly by the NWTF, its state and provincial chapters and wildlife agencies, the Super Fund supports conservation and education programs. Since 1985, NWTF chapters and cooperating partners have raised and spent more than $258 million upholding hunting traditions and conserving more than 13.1 million acres of wildlife habitat.
The program is open to any landowners who would like to participate. Orders for seedlings are currently being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, and seedlings will be available in February 2008.
For more information about the Mississippi Acorns for Wildlife Program, contact Joe Koloski at (601) 454-4455.
For more information about the National Wild Turkey Federation and its conservation efforts, please visit their website at www.nwtf.org.
