Mississippi community leaders now have another resource to help them create ‘best’ places to live, work and play. The Mississippi Urban Forest Council and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality are unveiling a new community development program. The program will assist communities in implementing sound natural resource conservation practices such as water quality, community forestry, scenic projects, habitat development, flood control, hazard mitigation, recycling, watershed assessments and many other valuable practices.

The Scenic Communities of Mississippi program is a listing of resources and programs in Mississippi that assist and provide funding/ technical assistance to communities. Over 200 natural resource conservation projects will be included in the resource listing with contacts and agencies within the state that provide these services directly to communities. The listing will include all resources from state, federal, nonprofit and private entities, as well as funding sources for grants and technical experts available to advise your community.

Communities that voluntarily implement a number of these programs will be recognized regionally and statewide as a Scenic Community of Mississippi. The success stories from these designated communities will be shared statewide and regionally through a variety of media.

Many communities are faced with new challenges of water quality mandates, storm water and land use issues. The programs listed will contribute to this ongoing challenge that community leaders and citizens share if improving economics and enhancing livability for their community. Green infrastructure, conservation and urban forestry are large pieces of the puzzle in community development when addressing these and other challenges. This project will better connect state resources to the decision makers in the communities, as well as the volunteer citizens who contribute to building better communities.

One hundred communities will be invited to participate the first year of the program and receive resource program assistance. If your community would like to be a leader in this valuable arena and has a history of natural resource conservation we invite you to participate. For more information contact: the Mississippi Urban Forest Council, Donna Yowell, Executive Director, 601 856-1660 or dyowell@aol.com.

MDEQ CREDITS:

Mississippi Department of Environmental QualityPartial funding provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Section 319 (h) of the Clean Water Act

2.  How To Enroll into the Program:
Scorecard

3.  Program Information and Benefits

You may find the first edition of the Scenic Communities Resource Guide here.

 ( For a updated version of the Resource Guide & Toolkit please contact Donna Yowell, Executive Director, 601 856-1660 or 601-672-0755 dyowell@aol.com) New guide to be available online soon!!
Resource Guide & Toolkit

4.  MUFC Advertising:
Application to Advertise in the Scenic Communities Resource Guide:

How to Place an Ad in the Scenic Resource Guide:

New edition to be printed and distributed by June 1, 2008

Dear Natural Resource Company:

On behalf of the MUFC Board of Directors, we would like to invite your company to participate in a new and exciting community development campaign. Scenic Communities of Mississippi is a two part resource listing program.

Part one of the program includes a resource guide/tool kit listing community development programs relative to natural resource management.

Part two is a recognition program for communities implementing the most number of these programs on a local leve

l. At this time we have printed and delivered to each city in the state the first copy of the resource guide and tool kit. You may contact me for a full copy. We are in the process of going through a second round of collecting resources for the second edition. During this round of outreach we will invite engineering firms, arborists and other private organizations to include their services in this valuable document through an ad that will help to sustain the campaign and make it possible for us to offer this free to communities. We are including listings of all services, programs, web sites and grants that are available in the state; public and private. The resource guides will be provided free to all communities in Mississippi over a two year period and is available on the MUFC web site. This is an excellent way for you to promote your company’s services.

Scenic Communities of Mississippi is funded in part by the MS Department of Environmental Quality with partners including U.S. EPA, Keep MS Beautiful, MS Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, MS Forestry Commission, and Natural Resource Conservation Services.

Full page ads are available for $250.00 B/W for public or private entities. On this page you may add logos or any other information you wish. You will need to provide us the print ready page in Microsoft Publisher or comparable. Please return the one page ad to me at dyowell@aol.com. These ads will be included in the next printing in May, 2006. Statewide distribution will take place in June, 2006. Deadline for submitting a one page ad or free edits is February 1, 2008. Submit to Donna Yowell at dyowell@aol.com or 164 Trace Cove Drive, Madison, MS 39110. Address questions to Donna at 601-856-1660 or 601-672-0755.

Scenic Communities Destination Recipients:

• 2004 Winner - Meridian, Mississippi
www.meridianms.org
• 2005 Winner - Olive Branch, Mississippi
www.ci.olive-branch.ms.us

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