Mississippi Forestry Commission


The Mississippi Forestry Commission is a State Agency in Mississippi with headquarters in Pearl. The Forestry Commission was authorized to: The agency was created in 1926.
WWW mfc.ms.gov/index.php

Mission

The mission of the Mississippi Forestry Commission is:

Program areas

The Mississippi Forestry Commission has two major program areas:
This program area is concerned with protection of the state's forestlands from wildfire, as well as, the detection, evaluation, and control of forest pests that include insects, diseases, and invasive plants.
This program area provides an assessment of statewide forest resources using geographic information systems to estimate forest removals, regeneration, and development of forest cover. The agency manages two state forests and the state's forested 16th Section School Trust Lands.

Organizational structure

There is a ten-member Board of Commissioners appointed by the Governor of Mississippi.
The agency is under the direction of a State Forester with five Departments.
There are four administrative regions in Mississippi. Each region is staffed by a Regional Forester, with either 6 or 7 Area Foresters assigned to individual regions.

16th Section Lands

The Mississippi Forestry Commission provides resource management on the state's 480,000 acres of forested 16th Section School Trust Lands in a cooperative arrangement with the Mississippi Secretary of State and local school districts. For some school districts in Mississippi, revenues from 16th Section timber sales and associated hunting and fishing leases have been their only source of funds.