STARKVILLE, Miss. -- A Mississippi State University Extension professor has been recognized for his contributions to wildlife conservation with the Clarence W. Watson Award.

Daryl Jones received the honor from the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. The award is presented jointly by the Southern Division of the American Fisheries Society, the Southeastern Section of The Wildlife Society, and the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and is described as the association’s most prestigious accolade.

Based in the MSU College of Forest Resources’ Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Jones has served since 2005 as director of the university’s Natural Resource Enterprises program, which provides information to landowners on sustainable property enterprises, such as hunting, fishing, wildlife watching and agritourism. He conducts research and Extension programming for agricultural and forest landowners in natural resource enterprises development and conservation practices.

Jones has led 300 in-person wildlife recreational enterprise workshops with nearly 12,000 landowners having used what they learned to develop more than 2,500 enterprises across 28 states. Participants also conducted conservation practices on their lands, totaling 3.4 million acres.

Jones also received the 2024 National Excellence in Extension Award for an Individual. The award is presented each year by the Cooperative Extension System’s Committee on Organization and Policy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. He was previously awarded a fellowship with The Wildlife Society in 2022 and named Wildlife Conservationist of the Year by the Mississippi Wildlife Federation in 2017.