Mississippi § 49-5-1 - Public lands.

§ 49-5-1. Public lands.

All lands belonging to the State of Mississippi whether held in fee or in trust by the state, are hereby declared forest reserves and wild life refuges so long as the state so owns them, and no wild life shall be taken thereon except under regulations of the commission. Every public park, golf course and play ground, containing as much as fifty (50) acres, shall constitute, and is hereby declared to be a sanctuary or preserve for the protection and propagation of bird and animal life. The Secretary of State, by and with the consent and approval of the Attorney General and the commission, is hereby authorized and empowered to lease, for a term not exceeding twenty (20) years, the cut-over, swamp and overflowed lands belonging to the state and unsuitable for cultivation, for the purpose of establishing game and fish preserves, but the lease of such land for game preserve purposes shall not be applied to tracts of land of less than one thousand (1,000) acres of contiguous lands. Such a lease shall provide that the lessee or lessees of the cut-over, swamp or overflowed land shall not cut any timber for commercial purposes or permit waste thereof or of the lands and shall not include the right to mine the oil, gas and minerals on or under the said land. As a consideration for the lease, the Secretary of State, by and with the consent of the Attorney General and the commission, shall contract that the lessee or lessees shall at all times protect the state’s interest in and to the timber growing on the leased lands. However, nothing in this subsection shall prevent the state from selling at any time any timber or any of said lands so leased, or leasing and/or drilling such lands for gas, oil, and/or minerals. Furthermore, nothing in this subsection shall prevent the homesteading of any lands so leased.