Delta National Forest

Sunflower WMA sign

Delta National Forest is a 60,898-acre property located entirely in Sharkey County, MS. Delta NF is a contiguous block of bottomland hardwood forest with seasonally flooded timber and small sloughs that drain into the Big and Little sunflower Rivers in the Yazoo Basin of the Mississippi River. The Forest is a key element in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and manages about 10,000 acres purely for wintering waterfowl habitat.

Delta also offers 57 dispersed campsites, 2 recreation areas and more than 45 miles of ATV and multiple use trails. There is also about 3 million board feet of timber harvested every year. The camping is reservation only and is free from May through September but costs $7 per night per site the rest of the year. The campsites are primitive (fire ring, picnic table, gravel pad, no hookups, toilets or running water) and either scattered through the woods or clustered at the Blue Lake or Little Sunflower River Recreation Areas.

The Green Ash-Overcup Oak-Sweetgum Research Natural Areas are in the forest. Each contains a stand of rare virgin bottomland timber with Sweetgums 250-to-300 years old.