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chANGING WOrLD
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Vicksburg tourism Nature a great natural resource in area These stories are the fourth in a series by staff writer Steve Sanoski and journalism students from the University of Mississippi. On Thursday: Tapestry and other annual events. By Donica Phifer For The Post It’s right there. It’s easy to see. And that may be the problem. “Certainly Vicksburg has a lot to offer, but there are very few towns that have what in our minds is a world-class natural resource — the greatest natural resource in our country.” So said Bruce Reid, director of Audubon Mississippi, which has its state headquarters on Washington Street in Vicksburg. It is a division of the National Audubon Society, a private conservation organization supported by philanthropy. He was talking about the Mississippi River and its myriad benefits. “To varying degrees,” Reid said, “people don’t know about it or appreciate it.” There’s little doubt that See Nature, Page A6.
Senate OKs preventing double dips by workers By Shelia Byrd The Associated Press
The project meredith spencer•The Vicksburg PosT
Local rare plants and animals Plants • American Chaffseed: Grows 12 to 24 inches high. The stems are unbranched or branched only at the base. The large, purplish-yellow, tubular flowers are 1 to 1.5 inches long and form a spike-like cluster, blooming from June to midJuly. It was listed as endangered in 1992, and is listed as being found in all Mississippi counties. • Pondberry: A shrub found in wetlands with dense growth. It produces a bright red, singleseeded berry that matures between August and early October. It was listed as endangered in 1986. One of the nation’s largest populations of pondberry is thought to be in the Delta National Forest in Sharkey County. • Price’s Potato-bean: Is a climbing yellow-green vine in the legume family that grows from a stout, potato-like tuber. The vines may be up to 15 feet with pale pink or greenish-yellow pealike flowers that flower from mid- to late-summer. It was listed as threatened in 1990, and is found across Mississippi. Animals • Indiana bat: A small- to medium-sized, gray, black or chestnut bat found primarily in Eastern and Midwestern states, but also in parts of the South, including Mississippi. The length is only about 1 to 2 inches and it typically weighs about a quarter of an ounce. The bats are difficult to distinguish from other species, especially the more common little brown bat, unless examined closely. It was listed as endangered in 1967. • Louisiana black bear: One of 16 recognized subspecies of the American black bear. Formerly widespread in North America, from northern Alaska and Newfoundland to Mexico, it is now found in just Louisiana, East Texas and Mississippi. It was listed as a threatened species in 1992. • Piping Plover: A small sand-colored, sparrowsized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange legs, a black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black ring around the neck. Its bill is orange with a
black tip. Listed as endangered in many northern states since 1985, it is listed as threatened in Mississippi and can be spotted throughout the state. • Pallid sturgeon: An endangered species of rayfinned fish, endemic to the waters of the Missouri and lower Mississippi River basins. Named for its pale coloration, the pallid sturgeon is closely related to the relatively common shovelnose sturgeon, but is much larger, averaging between 30 and 60 inches in length and up to 85 pounds. The pallid sturgeon takes 15 years to mature and spawns infrequently, but can live for up to a century. It was listed as endangered in 1990, and can be found across Mississippi, especially in the Mississippi River and its immediate tributaries. • Least tern: A species of tern that breeds in North America and northern South America. Its upper parts and wings are a fairly uniform pale gray and its underparts white. Its head is white, with a black cap and line through the eye to the base of the bill, and a small white forehead patch above the bill. With yellowish legs, its bill is yellow with a small black tip in summer, all blackish in winter. Listed as endangered in 1985, it is found across Mississippi. • Red-cockaded woodpecker: About the size of the Northern Cardinal, about 8.5 inches long, with a wingspan of about 14 inches and a weight of about 1.5 ounces. Its back is barred with black and white horizontal stripes. The male has a small red streak on each side of its black cap, called a cockade, hence its name. It generally makes its home in pine forests, and it is estimated that there are only about 5,000 groups of red-cockaded woodpeckers, or 12,500 birds, from Florida to Virginia and west to southeast Oklahoma and eastern Texas, representing about 1 percent of the woodpecker’s original population. It can be spotted across Mississippi, and has been listed as endangered since 1970.
Five journalism students from the University of Mississippi spent two days in Vicksburg last month — to gather and report on the future of tourism in the area. Their stories, directed by reporter Steve Sanoski and Executive Editor Charlie Mitchell, are being published today through Friday.
Aline Carambat
Andrew Mullen Scott
When it comes to tourism in Vicksburg, the sports and recreation market is perhaps one of the most overlooked and potentially profitable segments yet to be fully realized. “The Governor’s Cup alone brings $4.5 million into the City of Vicksburg over two weekends,” said parks and recreation director Joe Graves of the youth baseball tournament that draws 100 teams each summer. “Imagine six of those tournaments taking place over the year instead of one — you’re talking about major, major
bucks.” Because of Vicksburg’s proximity and interstate accessibility, Graves said there’s no doubt the number of youth and adult sports tournaments would increase if the city had the fields in place for large tournaments. “Everybody wants to come to Vicksburg because it’s a central hub for state tournaments, and for teams from Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi,” he said. “They also want to come to Vicksburg because of all the different things we have to offer; the national military park, the (casino) boats, the museSee Parks, Page A6.
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See Senate, Page A9.
Elizabeth Pearson
Donica Phifer
David Hopper
Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
New parks for recreation could equal ‘major bucks’ By Steve Sanoski ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com
JACKSON — The Mississippi Senate passed a bill Tuesday that aims to prevent “double dipping” by state employees who retire and then Compromise return to possible work as on charter part-time schools or contract workers for the government. The bill would require state agencies to make a contribution to the Public Employees Retirement System fund for those employees, even though the contract workers and part-time workers cannot accrue more time toward retirement. Currently, neither the returning employees nor the agencies that hire them contribute to the retirement system. Senate Finance Chairman Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, said
Adjustments after census off until 2015 By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com Census forms will be coming to most Warren County addresses next week, but any adjustment in voting districts won’t be made until 2015. An election based on new information from the Census Bureau during the 2011 Majority might cycle become miwould be norities “physically impossible” given the traditional qualifying deadline, District 5 Supervisor Richard George, board president, said. The primary purpose of the national census is to equalize voting districts from the U.S. House to local constables and school board membership. Central Mississippi Planning and Development District, a regional planning authority of which Warren,
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steve sanoski •The Vicksburg PosT
Ready for Tapestry — Tour home owners pose in period clothing, preparing for Tapestry: The Pilgrimage To Vicksburg, which kicks off Thursday and runs through April 5. Tickets for the series are $25 for three tours or $10 for one, and are available
at the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau visitors center, 3300 Clay St., or any of the 16 participating sites. A full schedule of events and participants is available at www.visitvicksburg.com.
See Census, Page A9.
WEAThEr
DEAThS
TODAY IN hISTOrY
cONTAcT US
INDEX
SpOrTS
tonight: Showers; low near 55 thursday: Showers; high near 72
• Elese Breazeale Harvey • Charlie Mack
1876: The first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone takes place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say, “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.” 1880: The Salvation Army arrives in the United States from England. 1969: James Earl Ray pleads guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
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kNOckOUT
Mississippi River:
27.2 feet Fell: 1.0 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
A9 VOLUME 128 NUMBER 69 4 SECTIONS
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