Species Conservation
The Chickasawhay Conservation Bank is a compensatory mitigation option for impacts to gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) within the mitigation service area that has been authorized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This 1,223-acre bank in Greene County, Mississippi, is located between Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.
As a keystone species, gopher tortoises provide valuable habitat for many other species including those that have become rare, such as the eastern indigo snake and gopher frog. The Chickasawhay Conservation Bank provides gopher tortoise conservation credits and gopher tortoise habitat preservation credits to offset permitted losses within the approved service areas in Mississippi and Alabama. The project provides ecological value through the restoration of longleaf pine habitat that has become exceedingly rare across the Southeast.
