Three new wildlife habitat options offered in state

Nebraska

Conservation agencies in Nebraska are partnering to offer three new options to landowners starting May 19, to develop habitat primarily for bird populations, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture official.

Greg Reisdorff, conservation program specialist for the Farm Service Agency whose agency is funding most of these new options, said the current demand for land for commodity crops is high. But producers may have small fields or odd areas that will work better for wildlife and provide guaranteed income to producers.

Two of the new options are in the State Acres For Wildlife Enhancement program offered through the Conservation Reserve Program by FSA. CRP lands that expired at the end of September 2007 can be enrolled before June 1. CRP lands in contracts soon to expire can be reenrolled into these programs. They are:

--SAFE for upland game bird habitat like quail and pheasants. This option is statewide. Minimum enrollment is five acres with a maximum enrollment of 80 acres. Portions of fields that are at least 100 feet wide and meet the five acre minimum are also eligible.

--SAFE for greater prairie chicken habitat in tallgrass prairie is also offered in 10 northeast Nebraska counties (Knox, Cedar, Dixon, Antelope, Pierce, Wayne, Boone, Madison, Stanton and Nance). Also 12 southeast Nebraska counties are eligible (Nuckolls, Fillmore, Thayer, Saline, Jefferson, Lancaster, Gage, Pawnee, Richardson, Johnson, Nemaha and Otoe.)

Payments under either option will be based on the average rental rate established by FSA, a one-time sign-up incentive payment of $10 per acre times the number of years in the contract, cost-share assistance for seeding and planting equal to 50 percent plus an additional 40 percent for the practice incentive payment, and a mid-contract management payment. Enrolled areas will be planted to mixes of grasses, legumes and forbs developed by wildlife biologists to maximize habitat value, and shrub thicket plantings (at least 30 feet by 50 feet) will be required on most enrollments. Managed haying and grazing will be allowed on SAFE enrollments following CRP regulations.

The third option being renewed is in the 37 county area of the Central Basins Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program area in central-eastern Nebraska. When this project area started in 2003, more than 18,000 acres of center pivot corners and small fields were quickly enrolled as wildlife resource areas. Funding for this program is a combined federal and state financial commitment. Now, FSA has authority to enroll more "resource acres" and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Pheasants Forever have received a NE Environmental Trust grant to pay the states' share on new acres enrolled. Funding is expected to allow up to 35,000 acres to be enrolled in the program. Other practices such as buffer strips, shallow water developments or wetland restoration are eligible in the CREP counties too.

In the Central Basins CREP area, all or parts of the following counties are eligible for the program: Wayne, Antelope, Boone, Madison, Stanton, Cuming, Platte, Colfax, Dodge, Burt, Washington, Merrick, Polk, Butler, Saunders, Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Buffalo, Hall, Hamilton, York, Seward, Lancaster, Phelps, Kearney, Adams, Clay, Fillmore, Saline, Franklin, Webster, Nuckolls, Thayer, Jefferson, Gage, and Pawnee.

Incentives to select the wildlife option include: the FSA soil rental rate plus a 20 percent incentive, a state incentive for $100 per corner or small field enrolled and an additional $100 if all four corners of a pivot field are enrolled, plus 50 percent federal cost share for establishing perennial cover with an additional 30 percent state and local cost-share that total up to an 80 percent total cost-share rate.

In 2003, we had 21,000 acres initially offered into the program in the first four months of the sign-up, said Reisdorff. We hope there is still an interest in developing wildlife habitat, he said.

The SAFE acres new wildlife options will be in a continuous sign-up process until acre or funding limits are met. In the CREP area sign-up will continue for at least three years or until acre or dollar limits are met. An additional $3 per acre payment is available to landowners allowing public walk-in hunting access to new enrollments in either program through Nebraska's CRP-MAP (Management Access Program. Landowners with existing CRP can also enroll in CRP-MAP by contacting the nearest Game and Parks Commission office.

Other agencies participating in this wildlife program include the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Pheasants Forever, NE Environmental Trust, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Landowners can get further information or apply for these programs at any USDA Service Center.

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Date: 6/13/08

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