Forestry
The Extension Service is a vital division of every land grant university in the United States. Each state has a land grant university system. Mississippi State is part of the land grant university system in Mississippi. In Michigan, it's Michigan State, in Georgia it's the University of Georgia and in Pennsylvania, it's Penn State University.
As part of the land grant university system with Alcorn State University, Mississippi State has the responsibility to extend the research accomplished at the university to those in the state that can't come to the school. To do this, the Extension Service, formerly known as the Cooperative Extension Service, occupies a major division of the university. The Extension Service Director has a network of county offices throughout Mississippi that house county Extension faculty and staff who serve local clientele with information on many topics including agriculture, family and consumer sciences, economic and community resource development, and 4-H/youth development.
Extension Forestry faculty are part of the MSU Department of Forestry and serve the Extension Service through the Director and county faculty by conducting forestry educational programs, writing publications, and other educational activities.
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STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Necessary restrictions on travel and gatherings are affecting how the Mississippi State University Extension Service operates, but its ability to respond to the needs of its clients, the public and state agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic continues uninterrupted.
Extension’s roles during crises are many: emergency management, local level assistance, support for the state’s agricultural industry, and dissemination of public information and education.
In 2019, Mississippi’s agricultural industry faced the prospect of dipping below $7 billion for the first time in eight years, but federal payments pushed its value up enough to post a slight gain over 2018.
The estimated value of Mississippi agriculture in 2019 is $7.39 billion, a 0.2% gain from last year’s $7.37 billion. Included in the total is an estimated $628 million in government payments, the largest amount of federal assistance Mississippi producers have seen since 2006
Mississippi’s timber industry remained its second highest producing agricultural commodity again in 2019.
Coming in with an estimated production value of $1.15 billion, timber followed the state’s poultry industry, which generated an estimated value of $2.78 billion in 2019. Timber’s value of production is estimated by monthly severance taxes collected by the Mississippi Department of Revenue.
Mississippi State University welcomed a new forestry specialist Nov. 1.
Shaun Tanger joined the MSU Extension Service in the southeast region as a forestry specialist with area and statewide duties.
Mississippians pondering ideas for a side business could consider investing in land and planting stem cuttings of Leyland and Murray cypress trees.
Success Stories
See what is new in Extension... Extension Holds New Agronomy Camp, Larry Alexander Fund Gives to the Future of 4-H, Extension Offers Ag Literacy Workshop for Teachers, Extension Offers Resources to Residents Affected by Backwater Flooding.
Foreman Matthew Ellis is responsible for keeping the grounds of the Biloxi National Cemetery in shape. But it’s more than just a job to him.
Logging is more than a job to Drew Massey. It’s in his blood. He is a fifth-generation logger. (Photo by Kevin Hudson)
During his tenure as an engineer at Boeing, Ottis Bullock helped build machines that went into the air and to the moon, but he always had an interest in the trees that grew from the ground where he came of age.
Mississippi’s 2017 Outstanding Logger of the Year is quick to credit his employees for his business’s success, but he prefers to call them part of his team.
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