When it comes to programs designed to aid landowners to improve wildlife habitat, the money and assistance are readily available, but the interest has been lackluster.
From federal to state programs that benefit everything from butterflies to deer, experts feel the work produce dramatic results but there just aren’t many people willing to get on board.
According to Kent Adams, the Northeast Region director of conservation for Pheasants Forever, there are numerous reasons why landowners are signing up for habitat programs in Pennsylvania. The federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, he said, allows for 280,000 acres to be enrolled in the state, but less than 100,000 acres are signed up.
“We’ve gone in the wrong direction,” Adams said.
But CREP isn’t the only habitat program that is under-utilized in the state. Adams said the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program directs 10% of its funding specifically for wildlife habitat enhancement, but there just aren’t many applications coming in. There are programs that provide a financial incentive for landowners to get involved, and it’s not limited to farms. Adams said there’s financial assistance available to those who own forestland, and that aspect of the habitat programs is probably the least known of all.
“There’s never been more opportunity than now,” he said, adding landowners may not know how to get started in a program or they’re just not aware of what’s available.
“If it’s not being promoted, people won’t make the call.”
Many of the programs are conducted through a partnership with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Natural Resource Conservation Services and conservation organizations like Pheasants Forever.
The Game Commission created the Private Landowner Assistance Program in 2004 to help landowners develop habitat management plans for their properties. The goal of the plans, which are free, is to improve habitat for at-risk bird and mammal species while balancing the landowner’s interests.
But that’s not all the agency offers.
According to John Taucher. private lands section chief for the PGC, the agency partners with other organizations to fund Farm Bill biologists and foresters to work with private landowners and implement habitat programs. The PGC also offers tree and shrub seedlings to landowners enrolled in the Hunter Access Program and even owns several warm season grass drills available to property owners to plant native grasses as part of a Farm Bill habitat program.
Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans said economics drives a lot of the participation in the habitat programs, especially among farmers. When grain prices are high, he said, farmers respond by increasing their planted acreage and, as a result, participation in CREP is low.
One way to increase participation, according to Burhans, is to change the mindset that farms need to be cut and manicured down to the last acre.
“Good wildlife habitat is rough-looking habitat. It’s the natural vegetation along the edge of a field, for example, and just because it doesn’t look pretty doesn’t mean it’s not productive,” Burhans said.
“There are numerous factors, but I do think the habitat programs are under-utilized, especially EQIP. We’re missing opportunities by overlooking the good that these programs can do, but for wildlife habitat and financial incentives for landowners.”
The financial benefit may be more significant now than ever before, Adams said, considering the skyrocketing input costs faced by farmers just to plant a crop. It’s not necessary to enroll entire farms or fields in a program, he said, and a small-scale, detailed approach could be financially lucrative to a farmer.
“Everyone knows that corn grows shorter along the field edge near trees, and that’s also where all the deer damage occurs. A farmer can take those areas out, enroll them in a program to create a field border of native perennial vegetation and take a rental payment on those unproductive areas,” Adams said. “In some instances, they’ll actually make more of a profit on that field by replacing the unproductive acres with wildlife habitat.”
- This story appeared in PA Outdoor News.
