On January 25 at its regional meeting in Cleveland, MS, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife , Fisheries and Parks honored Hank Burdine with the Conservationist Award. “I have no idea,” was Burdine’s response when asked what criteria the group used to bestow the honor on him. But, a look over his five decades worth of promotion and preservation to the habitat in the Delta gives a pretty detailed description about why MDWP chose him. “My dad died when I was 12 years-old, so I only got to go hunting with him once,” Burdine said. “I was blessed to be in a family who had some land around Leroy Percy Park and I grew up planting oak trees and preserving habitat for wildlife. And I was blessed to be able to acquire some land and do the same for it. My love of conservation was cultivated by my dad being an avid outdoorsman-he hunted ducks and geese and learning under the auspices of people like Sonny Rich who taught me to always leave a property in a better state than when I found it.”
The Conservationist accolade also speaks to the platform that Burdine has helped elevate for hunting, fishing, and land management in the Delta to broader audiences. The consummate storyteller and tour guide, Burdine has been the Delta’s ambassador for the great outdoors on social media, a Netflix documentary and the Bizarre Food Program. He is also a member of the Mississippi Levee Board and an outspoken advocate for installation of pumps along the Mississippi River’s south Delta area. “I’ve been involved in advocating for the pumps for years,” he explained. “There are very substantial environmental benefits to the Yazoo Backwater Project.”
Burdine has also advanced conservation in the Delta through his writing. As a regular contributor to Delta Magazine, he has written a book called, “Dust in the Road: Recollections of A Delta Boy.” “The book is a collection of articles that I have written for the magazine,” he explained. “It discusses the culture, writers, musicians, artists and, yes, habitats of the Delta.”
When asked if being a grand marshall for a local event like the Hot Tamale Festival would be another way for him to promote conservation, Burdine modestly began, “Aww, I don’t do that type of stuff!’ But he concluded with, “But I am the guy that they call to bless the whole thing with a prayer.” Burdine’s book is available at Coopwood Communications in Cleveland and at the Mississippi Wildlife Hunting Museum in Leland. “Hank Burdine is a longtime conservationist and hunter. He has spent his life promoting the outdoors in the Mississippi Delta and along the Mississippi River especially,” said Coopwood Communications owner/MDWFP Commissioner Scott Coopwood. “ As a gifted storyteller and author, Hank has often provided his talents to publicizing the people and land in the Delta through magazine articles, books and his many appearances on nationally syndicated tv shows. The MDWFP Commission is extremely proud to recognize Hank for his life-long commitment to conservation.”
