Of the many landscapes that we crossed on our trip back to Missouri from South Florida, the broad tidal marsh of the lower Pascagoula River was surely the most spectacular. This river, the largest (by volume) unimpeded stream in the lower 48 States, rises as the Chickisawhay River, north of Meridian, and the Leaf River in the Bienville National Forest, north of Hattiesburg; its 9000 square mile watershed covers most of southeast Mississippi and a sliver of southwest Alabama and drains into the Gulf of Mexico at Pascagoula Sound.
Long utilized for its timber, water and natural food sources and more recently recognized for its spectacular diversity of plant and animal life, the Pascagoula River Basin has come under increasing protection thanks to the efforts of local environmentalists in cooperation with State agencies, the Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society; the latter organization has established the Pascagoula River Audubon Center, in Moss Point, which introduces visitors to the rich ecosystem of the Basin, from upland oak-pine savannas, to freshwater cypress-tupelo swamps to the vast tidal wetlands along and south of Interstate 10. A consortium of the above organizations formed the Pascagoula River Basin Alliance in 2001, devoted to the protection of the River's watershed and to the welfare of its native plants and animals, many of which are threatened or endangered.
Among the many seasonal residents of the Pascagoula Basin are brown and American white pelicans, Mississippi sandhill cranes, swallow-tailed kites, bald eagles, ospreys, American alligators and a wide variety of herons, egrets, gulls, terns and wetland songbirds. Gulf sturgeon spawn in the river, which is also home to the endemic yellow-blotched map turtle.
