The agency also participates in Listen to the Eagle, a weekly radio and television program hosted by outdoor celebrity Paul Ott Carruth. When I asked for specifics about what the department is doing to keep up the good work and to assure the future of our outdoors heritage, Quisenberry pointed out the well-received special hunting days granted last year which allowed youths escorted by an adult to harvest deer before opening weekend. That was so popular that the same concept has now been extended by the legislature to many other game animals, including turkey, quail, and rabbit. Ron Garavelli, head of the fishing division, has also begun efforts to have inner city kids taken on fishing trips by adults. Two beautiful golf courses recently opened at state parks in Percy Quinn near McComb and John Kyle near Sardis, and another one is proposed for Hugh White State Park near Grenada.
Outdoor recreation is definitely big business in Mississippi.
Evidently, this forward-thinking department intends to maintain its enviable reputation for being the rare department of state government which makes folks happy to pay to play in the great Mississippi outdoors. Bill Lea, an avid outdoorsman, is a financial advisor with Lincoln Financial Advisors in Jackson.