Our Philosophy
Maggie Bryant, Tara’s Founder, was a past-two-term Chairperson of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and retired from her board position in 2001.

Maggie was awarded the prestigious Chevron Conservation Award as well as the Governor’s Award for Conservation in Mississippi. She was active in conservation measures around the world.
Tara’s philosophy is founded on a strong commitment to the management, development, and sustainable use of a broad spectrum of natural resources. Tara recognizes the importance of wildlife, timber, water, wetlands, agriculture and recreation in maintaining a high quality of life for current as well as future generations.
To this end, Tara has endowed the future by placing all 7,000 acres under conservation easements. As a further commitment to conservation, in December of 2001 Tara was deeded to a private foundation, Purvis Grange Foundation Inc. While promoting an appreciation of the environment through educational and direct-performance activities that conserve land and protect the wildlife that inhabit it, Tara is a model center for the study of habitat and the animals that are part of the ecosystem.
Mississippi River Conservation
The mighty Mississippi River is just outside of Tara’s doorstep. The River is wild, it’s massive, and it’s awe-inspiring to sit with amazement and watch as the muddy water of our Grand River flows along.

Maggie Bryant, Tara’s Founder, was instrumental in the funding and support of Mississippi River conservation issues including grants to Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, a non-profit consortium of state and federal agencies dedicated to the improvement of the lower river.
- The Mississippi River is our nation’s largest river and is the third longest in the world. It flows nearly 2,400 miles from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River drains 33 states and two Canadian provinces.
- 241 species of fish, 50 mammal species, 37 species of mussels, and 45 amphibian species are found within the Mississippi River system.
- Nearly 40 percent of North America’s waterfowl and 60 percent of all bird species in the United States migrate along the Mississippi River.Barge on the Mississippi River
- Historically, the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley encompassed approximately 25 million acres of seasonally flooded wetland habitat. Today, less than 2.5 million acres remain.
- Recreational use and tourism associated with the Mississippi River account for more than $10 billion in annual revenues.
- 12 million people live along the mainstream of the Mississippi River and generate more than $7 billion in agricultural and forest products and $429 billion in manufactured goods.
- Each year, 505 million tons or $80-$114 Billion dollars of commerce flows down the Mississippi River.
Facts from Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee (LMRCC). For more info contact LMRCC at 601-629-6602 or online through http://www. lmrcc.org
About Tara
Tara is located in the Eagle Lake community about 30 minutes northwest of historic Vicksburg, Mississippi and 72 miles west of Jackson.
With 6 miles of Mississippi River frontage and 6,500 acres of oxbow lakes and bottomland hardwood forests, Tara is one the nation’s ultimate destinations for deer and turkey hunting.
The 5700-square-foot conference center is the perfect location for your corporate retreats, business meetings, team-building seminars, family reunions, or conservation workshops
Tara’s commitment to the sustainable use and management of natural resources is our primary focus.
Our Summer Youth Camps educate children in outdoor skills, with a strong emphasis on safety and ethical behavior, along with the development of a greater appreciation of our natural resources.
We invite all hunters, companies, families and youth to visit and experience this unique place we call Tara!
Mission
The mission of Purvis Grange Foundation, Inc. dba Tara Wildlife is to manage its natural resources in an ecologically and economically sustainable manner while promoting conservation awareness and the wise use of those natural resources within a framework of both consumptive and non-consumptive opportunities.
Conservation
Through its partnerships with numerous conservation groups, Tara is active in black bear restoration, management of Neotropical bird habitat, protection of nesting bald eagles, Mississippi River ecosystem issues, wildlife and wetlands habitat management and the preservation and restoration of bottomland hardwood resources.

Conservation Partners
We are pleased to partner with the following organizations to promote conservation and wildlife habitat.
- Audubon Mississippi
- Ducks Unlimited
- US Fish and Wildlife
- US Army Corp of Engineers
- Mississippi Lower Delta Partnership
- Wildlife Mississippi
- Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks
- Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
- Mississippi Wildlife Federation
Articles about Tara Wildlife
Better Beginnings
Greetings to all, from what I hope is the beginning of the “Post Covid Era.” To say it has been quite the ride, would be an understatement and one cannot imagine a single life or family that has not been touched by this Global Pandemic. Reflecting at lost freedoms, family members and friends, Confucius was…
Tara Wildlife – Turning the Page
Albert Einstein is credited with more sayings than…. well…. than he really said. Nevertheless, the two Einstein quotes which follow, seem to have originated with this one-of-a-kind intellectual wonder: The only source of knowledge is experience If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. While we have all likely experienced, in…
Operation Fresh Start
As Tara Wildlife enters an exciting new decade and ponders the days, months and years which lay ahead, two oft used phrases come to mind. The first is a widely used phrase originating from the Alexander Pope poem, “An Essay on Man” which simply declares “hope springs eternal”. The second is a book written by…
The 2019 Flood: An Agonizing Journey – An Inevitable Result
When the Steele Bayou gates were opened on April 1, the Yazoo Backwater Area (landside) had crested at 97.2 feet with an estimated 512,000 acres of the basin covered in floodwater. At a reading of 49 feet on the Vicksburg Gauge, the Mississippi River was at 6 feet above flood stage. On May 23, the…
Continue Reading The 2019 Flood: An Agonizing Journey – An Inevitable Result
The Water’s Up……So What’s New?
I just received the Mississippi River Forecast/Update for May 3rd, 2019. It comes every day about this time and is a reminder of the current state of wet that defines the lower Mississippi River Delta. Peter Nimrod, Chief Engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board provides these daily updates and I am grateful for this generous…
Wildlife Management at Tara – Challenges and Changing Perspectives
“It was a long and stormy night”…………or, as Bob Segar and the Silver Bullet Band popularized in the hit song “Against the Wind”………. life has its challenges. How one views these challenges depends a great deal on ones perspective. Viktor Frankl, a noted Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist once quoted, “When we are no longer able…
Continue Reading Wildlife Management at Tara – Challenges and Changing Perspectives
A Study in Hardwood Sustainability
For you who have been associated with Tara Wildlife and its varied woodland habitats, you are most likely aware of the ever changing face of the Tara landscape. Some changes are the result of unintended environmental forces such as wind, water, insects, disease or a combination of these factors. Other changes are the result of…
Tara Wildlife as an Important Bird Area (IBA) for Bird Conservation
Bald Eagles at Tara Wildlife The National Audubon Society partners with Bird Life International to identify, monitor, and protect the Important Bird Areas (IBA) in the United States. Tara Wildlife has been designated as an IBA, the only privately owned IBA in Mississippi, since the assessment in 2008 (http://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas/tara-wildlife-inc). Important Bird Areas are selected based…
Continue Reading Tara Wildlife as an Important Bird Area (IBA) for Bird Conservation