James L. Cummins

Scenic Streams by James L. Cummins 

People have long felt a strong connection to streams and rivers. Painted scenes of rock-filled streams and lazy rivers often evoke feelings of serenity. Streams and rivers accommodate a variety of human activities, but they also support a variety of aquatic life and plants, as well as provide hydration for many species of wildlife, and humans. 

The value of streams and rivers is immeasurable, and it is essential to maintain them. Following the passage of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by Congress in 1968, Mississippi’s first attempt at a streams bill was in 1969. However, the project was abandoned in 1978 after six failed attempts at a regulatory streams act. These failures seemed to prove that a mandatory or regulatory program would not work in Mississippi. 

Twenty years later, a renewed effort was underway. Richard L. “Dick” Livingston, Chairman of the House Game and Fish Committee, and William Y. Quisenberry, of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) breathed new life and perspective into a plan for a streams program in Mississippi. William Quisenberry, known as “Quiz” to his friends and colleagues, had been working nearly 30 years on a piece of legislation to protect Mississippi’s scenic rivers and streams. In 1999, Quiz saw his work come to fruition when the Mississippi Legislature passed a non-regulatory scenic rivers and streams program to work with landowners to promote buffers along stream banks. 

This program, the Mississippi Scenic Streams Stewardship Act, was signed into law by Governor Kirk Fordice on March 16, 1999. The goal of the Mississippi Scenic Streams Stewardship Program is to encourage voluntary, private conservation efforts by stream‑side landowners. In a non-regulatory framework, landowners will be assisted in voluntary management agreements seeking to maintain scenic values while ensuring the landowner’s rights to continue customary uses along the stream. 

According to the bill, “To qualify as eligible, the stream must possess unique or outstanding scenic, recreational, geological, botanical, fish, wildlife, historic or cultural values. In addition, the stream must be a public waterway and not have been channelized in the previous five years.” In the Act, the drafters wrote that there is a necessity for a “rational balance between the use of these streams and the conservation of natural beauty along these streams.” 

Conservation is attainable through the efforts of the landowners of property which adjoins these streams and rivers. The benefits of keeping stream banks intact are many: property values remain strong; soil and nutrients stay in place; and the stream is saved from silt, caving banks and erosion. Also, swimming holes stay deep and canopies of trees and vegetation shade streams and keep water temperatures cooler. Cooler water temperatures in summer help stream fish populations remain stable.

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