A joint project was conducted between the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service and Tennessee Valley Authority to establish 3 landowner demonstration cooperatives in northeast Mississippi. The objective of the project was to illustrate to nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners the benefits of joining their lands with their neighbors to manage and market the wildlife and forest resources. A total of 62 landowners with combined land of 3,698 ha participated. Landowners were shown how to organize a cooperative, informed of different management and marketing objectives, given general management recommendations, and directed toward sources of technical management and marketing assistance. Cooperatives illustrate an approach by which adjoining landowners can manage and use existing wildlife and forest resources to increase profit from their lands.
