Mississippi Native James L. Cummins Begins Two-Year Term as President of the Boone and Crockett Club

MISSOULA, Mont. – The Boone and Crockett Club announced that James L. Cummins, Executive Director of Wildlife Mississippi, has been elected to serve as the Club’s 36th President. Cummins is a native of Mississippi (the state where Theodore Roosevelt’s infamous Fair Chase bear hunt took place) and as Boone and Crockett Club president he intends to focus efforts on promoting conservation policy and hunting ethics.

“For me, it was not hard to fall in love with the Boone and Crockett Club—my values and its values are practically the same, and its founder, Theodore Roosevelt, is my philosophical soul brother,” Cummins states. “As the oldest conservation organization in North America and the second oldest in the world, the Club has 135 years of thoughtful and measured commitment to conserving wild places and wild things. And we do so in a manner that balances human and wildlife needs, such as the wise use of our natural resources for hunting or managing our forests as a partial solution to climate change.”

Born and raised in the Delta town of Greenville, Mississippi, Cummins is a self-described “science nerd” who did his 11th grade science project on antler growth in white-tailed deer. He is a wildlife biologist by training with a B.S. from Mississippi State and a master’s degree from Virginia Tech. He also has significant policy experience serving as a staffer for the late U.S. Senator Thad Cochran and continuing policy actions in his current position with Wildlife Mississippi and through volunteer leadership positions with the Boone and Crockett Club and the Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation. Cummins also serves as one of the six Americans on the Bi-national Softwood Lumber Council with Canada. He became a member of the Boone and Crockett Club in 2007, recruited by former Club president and Honorary Life Member Bob Model who also led the Club’s engagement on conservation policy issues.

“James has been an active member helping to lead the Club’s Conservation Policy Committee and Strategic Planning Committee. He is always there when we need his leadership and guidance on policy and organizational structure and we are very excited to have him as Club president for the next two years,” commented Club CEO, Tony Schoonen.

Cummins has already jumped into his new role as President, working closely with members of Congress in the waning days of the 117th Congress to include the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act in the omnibus appropriations bill. He is actively engaged on deliberations for the reauthorization of the Farm Bill and forest policy. 

“It is truly humbling to be the president of the Boone and Crockett family. Our immediate past president, Jim Arnold, did a fabulous job leading this organization the last two years,” Cummins concluded. “He has handed the reins over to me and the entire team with the Club in its best financial shape as we accomplish more for conservation and hunting than we ever have. I am truly looking forward to taking it to the next level.”