Issue 6

Snapshot from the Field

by Claire Payne

The Mississippi Delta practically exudes a sense of place—the people, the climate, the soil, and the water all contribute to a unique complexity.

When project leader Ted Leininger moved from Riverside, CA, to Stoneville, MS, in December 1991 to join the SRS Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, it wasn’t the first time he’d lived in the South. Leininger lived in Durham, NC, while an undergraduate at Duke University, and in Blacksburg,VA, while earning his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. But after moving to Mississippi, he found an earlier link between the North Carolina Piedmont and the Mississippi Delta.

As the Nation grew in the early 1800s, people migrated from the Carolinas and east Tennessee to the Delta. “Old Delta families can trace their heritage from the Carolinas and Tennessee,” he says. “It was a natural expansion that also brought clearing to the vast thicket called the Big Woods. The restoration of that hardwood thicket is something I am keenly interested in.” The land continues to dominate life today. “Landowners in the Delta are very savvy.” Leininger says. “If they can generate income by taking their land out of agricultural production for forest restoration, and it makes sense, they will see it as an opportunity. They are very concerned about the environment and appreciate the natural habitat and wildlife. They’re hunters and fishermen. They realize the value of conservation practices.”

“Government will need to provide the research to develop programs for incentives,” Leininger says. A proven example is the intercropping technique developed by SRS scientists over a 10- year period that involves interplanting red oaks or other bottomland tree species beneath an established eastern cottonwood plantation. This standestablishment practice results in the development of a two-storied forest that can provide landowners with several income sources. When the practice was added to the Conservation Reserve Program’s options in May 2005, the regimen sparked a 200-percent increase in enrollment over a 6-month period. Leininger refers to the Delta Council as an example of entrepreneurial leadership that will drive economic stability in the region. Started in 1935 by a group of citizens to promote trade and economic development, the Delta Council recently expanded its focus to include literacy and health problems. Endemic poverty still characterizes the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, and the issues of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are in critical need of attention.

Leininger believes the success of the SRS Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research goes back to its continuing history since the 1930s. (It was shut down during World War II, but reopened after the war.) In the 1950s, people leading the lab established the Southern Hardwood Forestry Group. A few years ago this group celebrated its 50-year anniversary. Three charter members, now in their mid-70s to early 80s, attended. “This is a field-oriented group of practitioners who get together in the woods and talk about reforestation, harvesting, and other issues,” says Leininger. Two hundred members of the field group met in Vicksburg, MS, in April 2006.

“It’s great to see this dynamic outdoor classroom,” says Leininger. “People are wearing field clothes and boots, kicking the dirt, and talking. Practitioners are talking to researchers. Someone invites you to put in a study. A lot of cooperative and collaborative efforts have their inception there. Lifelong friendships are formed. There’s someone who just graduated from forestry school, who has a lot of book knowledge but no practical experience, talking to someone who’s walked in the woods for 50 years.”

The center also hosts an annual Southern Hardwood Forest Research Group meeting, which was started 2 years after the field group meeting. The research group typically draws 80 to 100 attendees from Mississippi and neighboring States of Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama, and often from Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia.

The Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research includes the Southern Hardwoods Laboratory in Stoneville and the Ecology of Aquatic and Terrestrial Fauna Team in Oxford, MS, led by Mel Warren—as well as Cal Meier in Pineville, LA, and Jack Vozzo, retired scientist and volunteer in Starkville, MS. “The scientists in this unit love what they’re doing,” says Leininger. “Through their research, they connect to stakeholders. There’s an additive energy through their care for the land, natural resources, and environmental issues. I encourage and support their science and garner resources to make sure they have what they need.”

The Mississippi Delta feels like home to Ted Leininger. He’s a native of southeastern Pennsylvania, where his ancestors were farmers. He finds southerners warm, engaging, and very hospitable. “They are willing to open up and bring you in,” he says. “In the South, the focus is still largely agricultural, especially in the Delta. This real connection to the land brings about hospitality and warmth. Drivers pass each other, whether on a two-lane or a highway, and the hand comes off the steering wheel. They’re saying hello.”

One of Leininger’s favorite books is Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, by John M. Barry. “Reading Rising Tide, I learned about the region, my job, flood control, and its importance to the people of this area,” he says. “The book covers so many things—natural history, science, and engineering; hydrology and the hydraulics of the Mississippi River; local, regional, and national policies; race relations—all wrapped around one event: the 1927 flood. It was probably the first time in the Nation’s history it was recognized that a national response was needed to get a region back on its feet,” Leininger adds. “The lessons learned are true today. All societal levels are affected by a natural disaster. It’s the great equilizer. When I drove down Highway 90 in Gulfport, MS, after Katrina, it was very humbling. Halfmillion- dollar and million-dollar homes were gone. On the concrete slabs where these homes once sat were 30-foot FEMA
trailers.”