Jim Currie Receives Mississippi Leopold Conservation Award

Jim Currie has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Mississippi Leopold Conservation Award®.

The award honors farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners who go above and beyond in the management of soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat on working land. Currie lives in Pass Christian and owns forestland near Picayune in Hancock County. 

The $10,000 award was presented at the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation’s Annual Meeting. 

Sand County Foundation and national sponsor American Farmland Trust will present Leopold Conservation Awards to landowners in 28 states this year. In Mississippi the award is presented with the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. 

Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the award recognizes farmers and forestland owners who inspire others with their dedication to environmental improvement. In his influential 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, Leopold advocated for “a land ethic,” an ethical relationship between people and the land they own and manage. 

“It’s such a prestigious award. I am honored to be named the 2025 Leopold Conservation Award winner from Mississippi, but I’m really standing on the backs of many people and organizations who have helped me along the way from the Mississippi Forestry Association to Mississippi State Extension Service to Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation,” Currie said. “However, I do not take care of this land for the awards. I take care of this land because it’s right, and I’m lucky enough to be entrusted to do so. I simply enjoy watching what this land can produce from the wildlife to the trees and grasslands. It’s truly amazing.”

Mississippi landowners were encouraged to apply, or be nominated, for the award earlier this year. Applications were reviewed by an independent panel of agricultural and conservation leaders from Mississippi. 

ABOUT JIM CURRIE

Jim Currie’s conservation journey evolved amid the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 

The Category 5 storm that washed away his coastal home, made landfall about 20 miles south of Woodland Cottage Farms, the forest and farmland he purchased in Hancock County a few years prior. 

Before the hurricane ravaged his land, Jim and his wife Laura had spent thousands of dollars and un-totaled hours eradicating native understory plants to reestablish longleaf pine. Jim then had an epiphany. It was the soil and groundcover, not the mangled trees, that were the true long-term occupiers of the site. 

He was inspired to take his conservation efforts to a higher level. 

Following a 20-year career in Belize, Jim came home and purchased the first of 17 parcels in 2000. His 1,175 acres range from old dairy pastures to former paper company forests, high ground and lowlands, overgrown forests and areas that were clear cut. 

Jim was inspired by Reed Noss’ Forgotten Grasslands of the South. With the help of the farm’s caretaker, Craig Saucier, they utilize prescribed fire to manage a pine-grassland ecosystem. Prescribed fire during the winter and growing season reestablishes a diverse understory of grasses that supports a wide array of wildlife. 

Fire-maintained longleaf pine ecosystems once dominated the Southeast, but declined to just 3.4 million acres due to deforestation, forest fragmentation, and fire exclusion. That figure has rebounded to 5.2 million acres thanks to the efforts of landowners like Jim, who has served on the Mississippi Prescribed Fire Council and formed a local prescribed fire mentoring program. 

Jim’s commitment to conservation includes investing in the purchase of a Flail Vac seed harvester. The hydraulically powered rotary brush collects native seeds that are used to reseed other areas with degraded understories. 

In his book, Game Management, Aldo Leopold wrote, “game can be restored by the creative use of the same tools which have heretofore destroyed it – axe, plow, cow, fire and gun.” Jim routinely uses each of these to enhance wildlife habitats on his property. 

In 2018 he began grazing a herd of Mississippi Pineywoods cattle to mimic the soil disturbance once created by bison. This heritage cattle breed known for its foraging skills is believed to have grazed this region since the 1500s. Although still relatively rare, the breed of cattle is gaining popularity for its ability to help restore longleaf pine ecosystems. 

Jim sells heifer calves as breeding stock, and sells steers to a local processor. The combination of timber and cattle sales as a business model was once common across Mississippi’s coastal plain. Wood poles, pulpwood, sawtimber, and pine straw are sold from the forests. Each of these revenue streams fund the land management activities at Woodland Cottage Farms. 

Today, Jim lives in Pass Christian, and regularly educates and inspires others by hosting workshops and field days. His farm attracts a diverse mix of wildlife, including rare crayfish species and the federally threatened gopher tortoises. It also hosts ponds where the endangered dusky gopher frog has been released as part of a relocation effort led by the Memphis Zoo and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Jim was featured in the Southeast Emmy Award-winning documentary, It’s a Journey, discussing the linkage of land conservation practices to the Gulf of Mexico’s water quality.

Casey Anderson of the Mississippi Forestry Association said, “Very few landowners personify the land ethic that Aldo Leopold sought to instill more fully than Jim Currie.”

ACCOLADES

“Every day Mississippi’s agriculturalists take pride in caring for and conserving the natural resources entrusted to them on the land they work to grow a crop, raise livestock, and build a habitat where wildlife flourishes. Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation is proud to recognize Jim Currie as this year’s Leopold Conservation Award winner from Mississippi because he is passionate about conserving the natural resources on his land, so they may be enjoyed for generations to come.”

“These award recipients are examples of how Aldo Leopold’s land ethic is alive and well today,” said Kevin McAleese, Sand County Foundation President and CEO. “Their dedication to conservation is both an inspiration to their peers as well as a reminder to all how important thoughtful agriculture is to clean water, healthy soil, and wildlife habitat.”

“As the national sponsor for Sand County Foundation’s Leopold Conservation Award, American Farmland Trust celebrates the hard work and dedication of the award recipients,” said John Piotti, AFT President and CEO. “At AFT we believe that exemplary conservation involves the land itself, the practices employed on the land, and the people who steward it. This award recognizes the integral role of all three.”

Among the many outstanding landowners nominated for the award were finalists: Sledge Taylor of Como in Panola County, Spirit Hill Farm of Holly Springs in Tate and Marshall counties, and Michael Wagner of Sumner in Tallahatchie County.  

The Leopold Conservation Award in Mississippi is made possible thanks to the generous support of American Farmland Trust, Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, Sand County Foundation, Farm Families of Mississippi, Mississippi Association of Conservation Districts, Mississippi Soil & Water Conservation Commission, and The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi. 

For more information, visit www.leopoldconservationaward.org. 

# # #

SAND COUNTY FOUNDATION inspires and empowers farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners to ethically care for the land to sustain water resources, build healthy soil, and enhance wildlife habitat. www.sandcountyfoundation.org