• Partners in
  Conservation
  • Reserve Management Board
    • Member Agencies
    • RMB Business
• Citizens Advisory Committee
• Strategic Plan
• New Facilities Update

Administration

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The reserve operates as a functional unit within the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and as a component of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS). The DMR is working in partnership with the federal agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to manage this cooperative program. Similar arrangements have been made throughout the NERRS to manage the other 26 sites.

Administration of the GNDNERR closely follows the guidelines established in the Grand Bay NERR Management Plan. This plan covers the broad operations of the program and is modified approximately every five years. In 2003, a Strategic Plan was developed as a condensed version of the Management Plan. Additionally, the reserve administers an annual NOAA Operations grant with specific tasks relating to provisions of the Management Plan under financial protocol established by the State of Mississippi.

The Grand Bay NERR boundaries encompass some 18,400 acres, situated in extreme southeast Jackson County, MS. Ownership of lands and waters within the reserve currently include: State/County 39%, Federal 34% and Private 27%. The Grand Bay NERR has entered into cooperative agreements with NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners relating to the operations of the reserve.

Temporary reserve office facilities are located on Bayou Heron Road, Moss Point, just north of the reserve boundaries on lands owned by the Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge . This space is shared with refuge staff. The permanent headquarters of the reserve and and refuge, which will include an interpretive center and research facilities, is scheduled to be completed on this site by the spring of 2008.