Landowner Incentive Program

What is the Landowner Incentive Program?

The Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) is a new and unique partnership between the DEC and private landowners to protect the habitat of at-risk species on private lands. The program is funded by a grant from the Department of the Interior, United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Funding is broken down into Tier 1, which partially funds the management and development of the overall program, and Tier 2 which is dedicated exclusively towards the implementation of on-the-ground conservation projects and landowner reimbursements. States throughout the country compete for funding of Tier 2 projects, with the USFWS funding those projects that rank the highest. Twenty-five percent of the total cost of Tier 1 and Tier 2 projects must come as non-federal match.

Landowner involvement in the program is entirely voluntary. Since the land is privately owned, public recreation or use of the sites will not be affected.

Why protect private lands?

As wildlife and habitat managers, we recognize that habitat protection and management are the keys to wildlife survival and perpetuation. Approximately 85% of the State's 32 Million acres are privately owned. The vast majority of wildlife inhabit, use, or move through private property, where necessary management options are currently very limited. Current land-use patterns have also fragmented essential habitat, isolating populations or limiting their access to needed resources. We have learned that we cannot possibly acquire all the land necessary to give wildlife sufficient room and resources to thrive.

Historically, landowners have managed and protected vast areas of wildlife habitat. This program seeks to encourage landowner participation in habitat management and protection by providing technical and financial assistance. This approach recognizes and rewards the role of private individuals in stewarding natural resources on their land.

As administrators at the national level have recognized for many years, and as evidenced by the passage of the LIP initiative, concrete incentives (monetary or otherwise) for private landowners are needed to ensure that critical habitats are protected, restored, and maintained for the benefit of wildlife.

To this effect, in 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded $ 1.12 million to New York to develop and initiate a LIP. This funding will provide the resources to ensure that critical habitats are protected, restored, and maintained for the benefit of wildlife.

We expect that LIP will continue to receive funding and become an essential, permanent, and integral tool for the long-term survival of at-risk species and their habitat in New York.

Priority species and habitats:

This program focuses on the protection and management of specific at-risk species and their habitat. These at-risk species have also been identified as Species of Greatest Conservation Need in our Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Some of these species live and breed in habitats found throughout the state, whereas others depend on a few key sites for survival. Identifying and targeting specific sites or geographical areas makes the most efficient use of our resources and provides the greatest benefit for our at-risk species.

Our two initial projects, approved for implementation by the USFWS, will be for the protection of grassland birds and management of their habitat and for the protection of at-risk bat species.

We envision that these projects will be just the beginning for the Landowner Incentive Program. In the coming years, we expect our partnership with private landowners to grow and for the program to expand to protect the habitat of other at-risk species and ecological communities throughout the state.