MISSISSIPPI SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION COMMISSION
In 1938, the Mississippi legislature officially recognized that our soil resources. were deteriorating at an enormous rate and that this was being caused by misuse or improper use of the land and the lack of applied conservation treatment or measures. It further recognized that if this were allowed to continue, the results would be disaster. In its effort to solve the problem, which was primarily soil erosion, the legislature enacted the Soil Conservation Law (currently Soil and Water Conservation Law), in which it created the State Soil Conservation Committee (currently the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission) and made provisions whereby each county could organize a soil conservation district (currently soil and water conservation district). The Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission is a state agency and a soil and water conservation district is a subdivision of state government.
The Commission is comprised of 13 members:
- President, Mississippi Association of Conservation Districts
- 1st Vice-President, Mississippi Association of Conservation Districts
- 2nd Vice-President, Mississippi Association of Conservation Districts
- Immediate Past President, Mississippi Association of Conservation Districts
- One member elected from each of the four (4) Congressional Districts
- One member elected Statewide At-Large
- Commissioner of Agriculture
- State Forester
- Ex-Officio: Director of Cooperative Extension Service
- Ex-Officio: Director of Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experimental Stations