Ray Mabus of Ackerman donated a conservation easement on land in Choctaw County in the east-central portion of Mississippi. The easement donated by Mabus is within the Sand Creek drainage basin, a tributary of the Noxubee River. It is adjacent to the Yockanookany River drainage basin, which is a tributary of the Pearl River.
This property, formerly the E. E. Mabus Nature Area Property, contains about 43 acres. John Rhinehart Mabus acquired it via fee purchase during the late 1800s. The property left the family sometime between 1913 and the mid-1930s. Raymond E. Mabus, Sr. purchased it in the mid-1930s. Raymond E. Mabus, Jr. acquired the property through his father’s will in 1987.
The Mabus Property is in an upland site, with its natural drainage ways/cove areas largely intact. Oak-hickory is the climax forest type in this physiographic region. Nevertheless, the ecological nature of the Mabus property is such that a variety of successional features exist, including mixed pine-hardwood, upland hardwood, and cove hardwood.
So many acres in Mississippi were converted to loblolly pine plantations, the upland hardwood and mixed hardwood/pine habitat that this conservation easement is made up of needs to be protected.
Success Stories
Read through the stories of 12 landowners and the success that the conservation easements had.