Pine Tree design
Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), block print, 1940 
Zachary Harris MFA (b. 1988), plasma-cut steel, 2019

The Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (Grand Bay NERR) was established in 1999 and is comprised of approximately 18,000 acres containing pine savannas, salt marshes, salt pannes, bays and bayous as well as terrestrial habitats that are unique to the coastal zone. Historical Ecology, like that conducted at Grand Bay NERR, can be described as the interface between ecology and historical geography that undertakes studies of lost or degenerated historic ecosystems.

Restoration Science projects include prescribed fires that aim to return to its original state a landscape that was once native longleaf pine savanna, changed dramatically due to human development and interference that has altered the natural ecology.

Historically, fires caused by lightning strikes and human activities burned thousands of acres along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico each year. These naturally-occurring fires burned away certain species of brush and allowed for the success habitat types including upland longleaf pine forests, wet pine savannas, wet pine flatwoods, and marshes. Prescribed fire takes the place of natural fire in sustaining ecosystem functions, improving habitat conditions for wildlife, and reducing hazardous accumulations of fuels. Without fire, the open savanna would be lost to vegetative succession.

Longleaf pine once dominated the Mississippi Gulf Coast, with virgin timber forests covering many thousands of acres. These were the forests that Walter Anderson roamed in the 1940s, which he considered a naturally-occurring cathedral.

Projects of the Grand Bay NERR are funded by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources in part through a grant provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.