Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson announced today that the East Mississippi Sentinel Landscape (EMSL) has officially been selected for designation by the federal Sentinel Landscapes Partnership, recognizing the region’s national importance to military readiness, working lands conservation, and long-term landscape resilience.
The Sentinel Landscapes Partnership is a federal initiative coordinated by the U.S. Departments of War, Agriculture, and Interior that promotes compatible land use near military installations while advancing conservation and working-lands priorities.
East Mississippi Sentinel Landscape: Anchored by Naval Air Station Meridian and supported by Columbus Air Force Base, the East Mississippi Sentinel Landscape encompasses a region essential to the nation’s pilot training enterprise. These installations produce naval aviators and Air Force pilots who support global operations, and they rely on extensive low-level training routes, special-use airspace, and rural landscapes that enable safe, realistic, and uninterrupted flight training. As development pressures and shifting land use patterns intensify, the need to protect flight corridors, preserve compatible uses, and reduce wildfire risk has never been more urgent. Safeguarding these landscapes is essential to preserving the mission readiness and long-term viability of this national defense asset.
The application was submitted by the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Military Affairs, Naval Air Station Meridian (NASMER), Columbus Air Force Base (CAFB), Mississippi State University office of Research and Economic Development, along with a broad coalition of federal, state, local, nonprofit, industry, and private landowner partners across East Mississippi.
“This designation recognizes something Mississippians have long understood—our forests, farms, rural communities, and military installations are deeply connected,” said Secretary Michael Watson. “The East Mississippi Sentinel Landscape protects nationally critical pilot training missions while also strengthening working lands, conservation efforts, outdoor recreation, and the rural way of life that defines much of our state. Mississippi’s inclusion into this program doesn’t happen without teamwork. Honored our team could lead the way on a project that will have a generational impact on our state.”
Governor Tate Reeves praised the designation as a major accomplishment for Mississippi and the nation’s defense mission, saying “Mississippi is proud to support military families and military missions which are vital to our national defense. The one-of-a-kind training environment here produces half of the Navy’s aviators and one-third of the Air Force’s undergraduate pilots each year. This designation will help enable Navy and Air Force pilot training by fostering collaboration among installations, communities, landowners, conservation partners, universities, and state agencies around a shared vision that strengthens both our economy and our national defense.”
The designation helps align federal, state, and private resources to address growing challenges such as incompatible development, loss of working lands, wildfire risk, infrastructure resilience, habitat degradation, and long-term mission compatibility across the broad rural geography supporting military operations.
Mississippi’s natural resource agencies, the Mississippi Secretary of State, NGOs, federal natural resource agency representatives, and the military installations will have oversight of the program. Mississippi State University will also play a central role by supporting landscape-scale planning, geospatial coordination, landowner engagement, and applied research efforts.
The EMSL encompasses over 6 million acres of working forests, farms, river systems, and military training airspace across East Mississippi. More than 90 percent of the landscape is privately owned, making voluntary landowner participation and local collaboration central to the initiative’s success.