Mississippi Opens Alligator WMA for New Delta Public Hunting Access

Mississippi just added new public hunting ground in the Delta, and that is the kind of access news hunters ought to pay attention to.

MDWFP announced the opening of Alligator Wildlife Management Area, a new WMA near the town of Alligator in Bolivar and Coahoma counties. The area covers about 2,882 acres in the North Mississippi Delta and comes through an ongoing partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The ground is mostly 20- to 24-year-old bottomland hardwood plantation. That matters because Delta bottomland habitat can carry deer, wild turkeys, small game, songbirds, and plenty of other wildlife when it is managed instead of forgotten. Public land does not have to be giant to matter. A few thousand acres in the right place can mean real opportunity for local hunters who do not own a lease or have family land waiting on them.

MDWFP says deer hunting on Alligator WMA will be archery-only except for a permit-only primitive weapon season. Hunters need to check the current WMA regulations for dates, permits, and area rules before showing up. That is not fine print. That is the difference between doing it right and being the guy who gives public-land hunters a bad name.

The agency is also pushing WMA users to use the MDWFP HuntFish app for required check-in and check-out. The old WMA Check-In app is no longer operational, so do not roll in with outdated information and pretend nobody told you.

This is what practical conservation and public access look like: agency work, federal partnership, habitat on the ground, and a gate open to legal hunters under clear rules. Mississippi hunters got another place to hunt. Now it is on the public to respect it, follow the seasons, and leave it better than they found it.