The Jordan Development Agricultural Land Easement is a multi-organization partnership with Mississippi Land Trust (MLT), Wildlife Mississippi (WM), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to purchase a land easement on 732 contiguous acres in Jackson, Mississippi, owned by the Jordan family.

The property is an important connectivity corridor between Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge and DeSoto National Forest and contains upland longleaf pine, seepage slopes, wet pine savanna and bottomland hardwood forest. It supports a myriad of declining longleaf pine grassland/wet pine savanna species, including federally endangered Mississippi sandhill cranes, gopher tortoises, speckled burrowing crayfish, Louisiana quillwort, Bachman’s sparrow, eastern diamondback rattlesnake and northern bobwhite. The property also has 99 species of greatest concern for the state of Mississippi. Approximately 712 acres will be placed under a NRCS Agricultural Land Easement as a “Grassland of Special Environmental Significance.”

A portion of the easement proceeds will be used for land management activities. The Jordan family will donate the property to MLT with the completion of the easement purchase and managed in perpetuity as the “Naif and Jesse Jordan Memorial Natural Area”with controlled outdoor recreational and educational activities.

• Property Cost: $2,755,560
• Atira Conservation Funding: $24,500