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INTRODUCTION According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologic map of Mississippi , the Jackson group formation covers approximately 1.4 million acres (566,572 ha), or about 5 percent of the state. The formation is composed of Eocene-age sediments, mostly of green and gray calcareous Yazoo clay containing some sand and marl. Within its western portion (in Yazoo, Madison, Hinds, and Rankin counties), representing 61 percent of the formation, the characteristic marly, often calcareous sediments are mostly buried by Pleistocene loessal soils. Because of these loessal deposits, the surface soils of this western portion are mostly silty in texture. The eastern portion, consisting of a narrow band running diagonally to the southeast across Scott, Newton, Smith, Jasper, Clarke, and Wayne counties, is generally exposed at ground level and has weathered in place. Several distinctive soil series, such as the Vaiden, Okolona, Kipling, Louin, and Sumter, are representative of these exposed, weathered strata. Almost 90 percent of the eastern portion exhibits heavier soil textures of silty clay, silty clay loam, or clay. The Jackson group formation underlies almost two-thirds of the Bienville National Forest lands (Figure 13.1). Monette (1851), Hilgard (1860), and Lowe (1921) ¤rst described the geological formations, soils, and associated vegetation of the Jackson Prairie. Early European settlers preferred prairie soils because of their fertility and conveniently sparse tree cover. “Rediscovery” began in the early 1970s when Jones (1971) reported on a prairie in Scott County. The impetus of his paper and a report by Watson in 1974 that con¤rmed Jones’s work led to a recommendation that the area be designated as a national natural landmark by the Na13 Rediscovery and Management of Prairie Remnants of the Bienville National Forest, East-Central Mississippi Dean Elsen and Ronald Wieland tional Park Service (Waggoner 1975) and later to the establishment of the Harrell Prairie Hill as a botanical area by the U.S. Forest Service (1980). In 1988, with the help of a Forest Service cost-share program, Gordon and Wiseman (1989) completed a survey of the Bienville National Forest to identify additional prairie remnants. Indicator-plant species were used to identify the presence of prairies. Based on the inFig . 13.1. Location of Bienville National Forest, south-central Mississippi, and the Jackson geological group. 240 Elsen and Wieland dicator vegetation and the amount of disturbance observed, prairies were ranked to help identify the best representatives of the original ecosystem. About 60 prairie remnants were documented in this study. McDaniel and Carraway (1995) completed additional vegetation sampling on the Tallahala Wildlife Management Area, also on national forest lands. Moran et al. (1997) investigated soils in four prairie openings. Quantitative vegetation composition and environmental analysis was conducted on a select group of 15 prairies in the Bienville National Forest (Wieland 2000). These studies have helped to de¤ne the distinctive qualities of the Jackson Prairie remnants. After identi¤cation and characterization of these remnants, management was begun by the U.S. Forest Service at some areas to restore and enhance biodiversity. The Mississippi Division of Forestry also has begun restoration on some prairie remnants on county-owned 16th Section prairie lands, and one private landowner has worked to restore a prairie remnant. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The history of the Bienville National Forest lands provides a perspective on how land use in®uenced prairie remnants during the 1800s and 1900s. Brown (1894) provided anecdotes about the prairies in Newton County: “Much open land and wide-spreading open prairies in the southwestern part of the county [pp. 4] . . . [were] covered with a growth of very rich grass and a very parterre of ®owers [pp. 31] . . . these lands in many instances had a large accumulation of small shells in the soil [pp. 31] . . . and were productive of corn and other grain [pp. 32].” Widespread logging by large timber companies across central Mississippi from 1910 through the 1930s left the lands deforested and vulnerable to erosion. The companies defaulted on tax payments, and livestock were subsequently allowed to range freely on the land. Cattlemen used burning to stimulate grasses and forbs and to initiate earlier springtime green-up, enhancing the quantity and quality of forage in the cutover forests. After purchase by the federal government in 1934 and 1935, livestock were brought under grazing allotments and eventually eliminated from the Bienville National Forest. Federal land managers instituted¤re-exclusion practices to protect young pine plantations, a campaign that persisted for approximately 40 years. Despite such efforts, attempts at planting loblolly pine...

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