By Hunter Cloud
The Daily Leader

William McKinley will open the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries
and Parks monthly commission meeting with an educational session on Chronic Wasting
Disease Thursday morning. McKinley is the state’s deer program coordinator.
MDWFP’s commission meets on a monthly basis. October’s meeting will be held at the MDWFP
headquarters located at 1505 Eastover Drive in Jackson. The education session will start at 9
a.m. followed by a business session at 10 a.m. according to the finalized agenda.
Chronic Wasting Disease is a 100 percent always fatal disease in deer. Mississippi has 320
positive detections since first detection in 2018. McKinley told The Daily Leader two new
positives were detected in Marshall County and are the first CWD positives of the 2024-2025
hunting season.
McKinley’s presentation on CWD will be informative to anyone, especially to those who do not
know what Chronic Wasting Disease is. Typically, the MDWFP will share the educational
session on YouTube at a later date.
Ricky Flynt, Executive Director of the Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund, will give an update to
the commission. The Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund helps connect Mississippians to the
outdoors by providing financial support to various projects.
Following the education session, MDWFP’s commission will conduct a business session. Jason
Thompson, Director of Administrative Services, typically opens the meeting in prayer and will
later give an update on license sales.
Former MDWFP Commissioner Bill Cossar would remind those in attendance that 90 percent of
the MDWFP budget is funded by license sales which is why Thompson’s report is so important.
Additionally, Thompson may have an update on the new online license sales system which is
planned to go live in Feb. 2025.
There are no public comments listed in the final agenda although people may come in Thursday
with public comments.
Wildlife Chief of Staff Russ Walsh and Waterfowl Program Coordinator Houston Havens will
present a request for continued funding of Ducks Unlimited projects. DU’s habitat projects in the
prairie pothole region of Canada and the Dakotas help produce more ducks which fly south to
Mississippi each year.
Jerry Carter, Chief of Law Enforcement, will give an update on citations and any other
enforcement topics. License reinstatement requests for Tyler Breland and James Theriot of
Pearl River County and Damion Pipkins of Georgia County will be heard before the conclusion
of the meeting.
In other business, commissioners will discuss a rule regarding a no wake zone in Jackson
County.Last month, MDWFP Commissioners discussed the addition of more acreage to Marion
County WMA in executive session and the topic could come up again in executive session.

The next MDWFP Commission meeting will be Nov. 14 with an educational session at 9 a.m.