MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Fee fishing, fee hunting, agritourism, trail riding and wildlife watching are examples of outdoor recreational businesses based on natural resources commonly found on Mississippi’s private lands.

A one-day workshop will provide farmers, landowners and resource managers with the resources to start and manage a natural resource enterprise. This Oct. 11 event will be held at McKenna Ranch near Pachuta in Clarke County.

Beginning at 8 a.m., workshop participants will hear presentations about business management, marketing, types of enterprises, cost-share programs and liability issues. In the afternoon, participants will be taken into the field to learn about wildlife habitat management techniques and outdoor recreation enterprises, such as fee fishing and bird watching.

Additional topics to be discussed will be hurricane disaster/emergency landowner cost-share opportunities such as the Conservation Reserve Program and long-leaf pine restoration programs, available to south Mississippi landowners.

This workshop is part of a series by the Natural Resource Enterprises Program at Mississippi State University. This program is a partnership with MSU’s Extension Service, MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

MSU’s Extension Service, MAFES and the FWRC cooperatively created and implemented the Natural Resource Enterprises Program to assist private landowners in developing alternative or supplemental methods of income on their land.

Registration for the workshop is $25, which includes a reference notebook, lunch, breaks, presentations by resource professionals and a field tour with agency personnel. Early registration is recommended due to space limitations.

For more information about the workshop or to register, go online to http://www.wildlifeworkshop.msstate.edu or call (662) 325-3133.

Contact: Adam Rohnke, (601) 857-2284