12-04-CWS | January 13, 2012
BILOXI, Miss. – Join us on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve’s (NERR) Coastal Resources Center and learn the best way to attract and harbor purple martins. They are one of the first colonial nesting migrant species to return in the spring and are both beneficial and entertaining. The workshop will include a review of the life history of the purple martin, the best ways for building and locating your colony and construction of a gourd colony to be placed at the NERR. Leave with a gourd house to take home and hang in your own backyard. This free workshop is open to everyone. For information, call Jennifer Buchanan at 228-475-7047.
The Grand Bay NERR is located near the community of Pecan in southeast Jackson County and includes wetlands and waterways from Bang’s Lake to the Alabama state line. A major goal of the Reserve is to provide for research coordination and dissemination of scientific data to the community and local decision-makers to provide sound information on which to base management decisions. The Reserve’s Coastal Resources Center is located at 6005 Bayou Heron Road, Moss Point, Mississippi. For Directions to the site please check out our Web site at www.grandbaynerr.org or call Jennifer Buchanan at 228.475.7047.
The 18,000-acre reserve is home to several rare or endangered plant and animal species and serves as an essential nursery habitat for numerous important commercial and recreational fish species. The Reserve is managed through state-federal partnership between the MDMR and its local partners: Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Mississippi State University; the Nature Conservancy; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources is dedicated to enhancing, protecting and conserving marine interests of the state by managing all marine life, public trust wetlands, adjacent uplands and waterfront areas to provide for the optimal commercial, recreational, educational and economic uses of these resources consistent with environmental concerns and social changes. Visit the DMR online at www.dmr.ms.gov.
Contact: Shelly Becker
Phone: 228-523-4051
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