Statutory Authority

Statutory Authority. In 1938, the Mississippi Legislature officially recognized that the state’s soil resources were deteriorating at an enormous rate and in its effort to solve the problem, enacted the Soil Conservation Law, in which it created the State Soil Conservation Committee and made provisions whereby local landowners could organize a soil conservation District. With the passage of time other natural resource concerns arose, most notably the loss of, degradation of and management of the state’s water resources. Through various amendments the Committee became the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission and Soil Conservation Districts became Soil and Water Conservation Districts.