CHAPTER III: MISSISSIPPI’S ECOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK-ECOREGIONS OF MISSISSIPPI 61
B ailey/US Forest Service Ecological Units as modified in 1998 by The Nature Conservancy were
adopted by the CWCS Technical Committee as ecoregions for this strategy, because of their wide
acceptance within the ecological community and their close association to the Partners in Flight regional
plans. TNC's four Ecoregional Plans that cover Mississippi are major planning documents from which
much of the information and recommendations in this strategy were drawn.TNC operates on the principle of protecting biological diversity and functional landscapes through land
conservation. Their planning process relies heavily on the NHP data and expert feedback. In Mississippi,
they have identified at total of 64 terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity sites that, if protected, would
likely ensure the survival of the four ecoregions' native plants, animals, natural community types and
critical ecological processes. Using TNC's ecoregions will also allow Mississippi's strategy to be "rolled-
up" with surrounding states into a national synopsis that will allow Congress and the public to see a
coordinated, scientifically rigid account of the nation's "at risk" wildlife and their habitat.What is an ecoregion?Ecoregions have been defined and mapped by many entities. They are commonly considered to be large
areas distinguished from surrounding regions by differing biotic and environmental factors and/or
ecological processes. Factors that are generally used to distinguish these large regions from one another
include differences in climate, physical geography, soils, species or communities. Using similar criteria,