I was about 5 years old when my dad took me hunting for the first time. The magic of those mornings sitting with him in the “hickory stand’ looking at the towering trees above and the sound of woods waking up around us still resonate with me today. As do the drives to my grandparents in Marks, as we’d pass fields of ducks and geese, only to hear them flying over the Coldwater River behind their house once we arrived.

Those memories and experiences created a lifelong respect for Mississippi’s outdoors and eventually led me toward a career in conservation, which has brought me to The Nature Conservancy.

You may not know much about who the Conservancy is or what we do. Our mission is “to preserve the land water on which all life depends.” I was attracted to this organization because their conservation efforts were grounded in experiences gained from being one of largest private landowners in the US. From row-crop farms in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, cattle and bison ranches in the Midwest, prime crawfish ground in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, to the barrier islands off Virginia’s coast, we have over 400 staff on-the-ground managing our 2.5 million acres across the U.S. every day.

Ownership of such properties lends itself to real-world experiences that strengthen our conservation efforts with public and private landowners as well as other conservation focused groups. This held true as we were working over the last few years with several public and private partners to acquire the state’s newest Wildlife Management Area in the south Delta, now known as the Phil Bryant WMA. This particular acquisition shows the “why” of what we do at TNC.

The collaboration between the state, TNC, and the private sector helped conserve one of the Delta’s last remaining blocks of “big woods”, while providing unprecedented recreational opportunities for years to come. It is easy to see why this will serve as one of the greatest conservation success stories in our state.

Our work in Mississippi began in the late 1970s and since those earliest days we’ve worked to conserve several unique landscapes that many of you know personally. McIntyre Scatters, Dahomey, Hillside, Morgan Brake, and Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuges and Shipland Wildlife Management Area (WMA). But we’ve also been at work in other parts of the state as well.

We’ve been committed to conserving and restoring land along the Pascagoula for over 40 years, having helped directly conserve over 80,000 acres along the river alone. Today the Pascagoula River represents the largest free flowing river in the lower 48 states. This 40-year effort complements our work to restore our Gulf’s critical oyster reefs, with new efforts on that front beginning early next spring in Bay St. Louis.

Overall, the Conservancy has helped conserve or restore nearly 170,000 acres across Mississippi. This work takes a dedicated team of biologists, engineers, foresters, and private donors who work to make a lasting difference for all Mississippians who enjoy hunting, fishing or just being outdoors.

If you get the chance, I hope you will take a minute to get to know more about all of our work at www.nature.org/mississippi.

Alex Littlejohn is associate state director of The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi.