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MISSISSIPPI’S PEARL: THE PASCAGOULA Home to some 300 bird species, the largest free-flowing river system in the lower 48 states faces threats

that include a proposed deep-water port By Ken Olsen

pany that once owned a large portion of the land along the river never clear-cut the for- est. In the 1970s, advocates ranging froma timber com- pany heir toMWF, from hunters and fishermen to TheNature Conservancy, persuaded the state to buy 32,000 acres of bottom- land forest fromthe PascagoulaHardwood Company in a down-to-the-wire effort to acquire the land before itwas sold to a corporate timber giant. This pioneering effort even- tually led to protection of 50,000 acres of the Pascagoula water- shed. “Most people thought it was a lost cause,” says Bill

r main unspoiled. MWF and its miles long and drains a water- the Bouie River—a key tribu- tary where gulf sturgeon spawn. the northern third of the world, near Gulfport will rteiqiuire this undammed, unlevied,

slative liaison and aide to the goufalarRiver starts with the wed- ding of the Chickasawhay and Leaf Rivers near th former timber tevenotwn ofMerrill and cuts lazy S-curves through verdant forestsThe, swamps and floodplains to the Gulf ofMexico. It is 80

national significance.” Pascagoula may not

allies have fought efforts to dam shed the size of Vermont. In a 1994 study of rivers in A proposed deep-water port the jou nal Science iden f ed dredging sturgeon-feeding

undarreedagsed vestige as the largest free-flowing iver system in the meled the region, the Bush

Quisenberry, who was then leg- SouithernM ssissippi’ s Pasca- sighted Mississippi wildlife department chief, AveryWood, Jr., who led the effort. “I think oday it is an acquisition of

Pascagoula River Basin

cant, says Stephen T. Ross, pro- fessor emeritus in the Biological Sciences Department at the Uni- versity of SouthernMississippi and author of Inland Fishes of Mississippi. If the petroleum depot alone goes forward, “you will have significantly degraded one of the last remaining natural river systems.” The river hosts 300 ofMissis- sippi’s approximately 400 bird species, including swalthleow-tailed

MALE WOOD ducks perch in a tree in the Pascagoula Basin, which covers 9,600 square miles. The river winds a path across 80 miles of southeastern Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico.

domes near Richton into Strate- selves to return to Central and says places like the Pascagoula “are the closest thing the south- eastern United States has to wilderness.”

NWF IN ACTION Today, however, the

Pascagoula is threatened by a proposed Strategic Petroleum Reserve depot, a proposed port expansion, periodic dampropos- als and the prospect that large timber tracts will be subdivided once the real-estatemarket rebounds. The stakes are signifi-

| 18 |2 NA0 | TIONA OWI L L LD | NATIL NALDWIFE LIFE

Saving Habitat NWF works with its 47 state affiliates to protect wildlife habitat throughout the nation. One of the groups, the Mississippi Wildlife Federation, is a leader in efforts to protect the Pascagoula and works with various state agencies and private organizations to safeguard wildlife. For information on NWF affiliates, visit www.nwf.org/regional-centers.aspx; the website of the Mississippi affiliate is www.mswildlife.org.

inistration casually unveiledover the Gulf ofMexTico as weljlust determined to takeing and hunting the Pascagoula plans to turn underground salt as for flocks fortifying them- up in nearbyMobile, Alabama,

after Hurricane Katrina pum- neotropicalmigrating birds after lower 48 states. Naturalist and Puliadmtzer Prize-winning author Edward O.Wilson, who grew

. Most worrisome: Shortly and respite for northbound their exhausting 600-smile flight

hey ar

kites. It provides critiscaaysl foodWilson, who exspressed shock at the petrtoleum-reserve propo al. “TheyPaarsecgoing to an unfettered natural river. The swallow- tailed kite

hat the agoula is

South America for the winter. About two-thirds of the bird species that breed in theMid- west,Northeast and Canada’s Maritime Provinces depend on the Pascagoula in spring and fall. The Pascagoula gives life to otters, alligators and Louisiana black bears. It harbors one of the nation’s most diverse fresh- water fish faunas—109 native species including Alabam shad, bass, bullhead and th endan-

ou natural environment.” winters South

away one of the last remnants of with his grandparents. “Every the Pascagoula,whic

he says, taking a break on a r

Pascagoula and southernMissis-re nt sp n mo n g f hing a dozen fish. “The goula can teach you any- you want to know if you

just sit there and listen.”

gic Petroleum Reserve reposito- ries. The proposal went unno- ticed in the struggle to recover from Katrina’s devastation. Construction plans call for taking 50million gallons of

water a day fromthe Pascagoula for five years to hollow out the salt domes for oil storage. The

duced daily by that hydraulic mining would be piped south and dumped into Mississippi

Missis ippi

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inevitable once pipelines begin carrying oil to the salt domes. The water extraction may

affect a number of wetland plant communities, says Mark

Woodrey, a research biologist at Mississippi State University’s Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi, which would in turn affect the bird communi- ties found in the Lower

Pascagoula River marshes. It could interfere with spring floods that carry vital surges of nutrients to the forests, wetlands and floodplains. Significantly lowering the river also will

42million gallons of brine pro- gered gulf sturgeon. It is the las recreate a haven for birds, fish, plants and animals like the Pascagoula anywhere.”

Sound just east of Horn Island, other thr atened and endan- where gulf sturgeon feed. The brine, far saltier than seawater, could devastate the sturgeon,

A WINDING course

shrink breeding grounds for the insects that feed migratory birds, fish, reptiles and other critters. “You can store oil anywhere,” Shropshire says. “You cannot haven of the pearl darter and the yellow-blotched sawback turtle and home to two dozen TheObama administration didn’t include funding for the is an i land where we have habitat for endangered species

Sound instead of pushing it into Wildlife Federation (MWF), an oce n. “That’s a two-fer,” ar

tive director of theMississippi NWF state affiliate.

The P scagoula provides things never die.”

Ross says. Other scientists say thewe idt’osna longway fromcanceling the currents could bring the pollutedsaysproject. “It has been our experi- water back intoMississippi and open wetlands igns

The petroleumreservewill

gered species. “The Pascagoula Pascagoula oil depot in next year’s budget.While that’s good news, ’t have anywhere else,” Cathy Shropshire, execu-

ence that such item get reinstated as the budget billmoves through theHouse and Senate,” Shrop- “shire cautions. “Trustme, these opportunity to do anything,” adds Justin Sward, anMWF

The petroleum reserve could weather is right, we’re out here,” foul a consideraibnle part of the America but nests around the Pascagoula.

Department of Energy estimatesbecause it is largely inaccessible— w uld put this ecosystemthat is

8-day supply of petroleum?” Ross asks. “And for that you

f Coast, and the timber com-

that just while building and fill-most of it can be rea hed only by so rare at risk?”

ing the depot, 18 oil spills and 75boat.Much of ts industrial devel- saltwater spills will occur. Oil leaks and spills also are

opment is concentrated on the GulKEN OLSEN is based in Oregon.

crew up two ecosystems at once.boardmember who started fish- Itmakes farmore sense to Shrop- shire, Sward and others to protect Sunday after church, if theoffers gr at ecotourismpotential. It lready sust ins hunting, birding ceand ortihegr recreaitnionaatsewell as a

provideminimal pe manent jobs.

sippi. The pipeline carrying the catcsport fisheryworth $488million brine to the Gulf ofMexico will Pascyaearly to the state economy and a cross several rivers, streams and thincgommercial fishery that supports freshwater wetlands,MWF’s Shropshire says. The U.S.

some 15,000 jobs. “It’swhat, an T1he Pascagoula remainswild

TOP, RALPH LYON; MIDDLE, BILL STRIPLING