If interested in wildlife habitat on your property, but don’t have the expertise or the finances to accomplish your goals, or own cropland and want to do more for wildlife, especially on low-producing areas that are shaded or wet, Pheasants Forever is partnering with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help landowners.
They will help create high-quality habitat and conserve natural resources through free technical assistance and funding.
Crop fields within target watersheds may be eligible for the Pheasants Forever Borders for Birds and the Bay Field Border Incentive Program. By establishing perennial grass borders adjacent to cropland you may be eligible to receive $1,200 to $2,000 per acre in a one-time payment.
Perennial grass borders can improve profit margins while reducing erosion, filtering ground water, and providing habitat for wildlife, including turkey, deer and grassland birds. Concurrently, the Chesapeake Bay watershed is experiencing crisis due to heavy nutrient loading and erosion.
Removing these areas from production can provide an increased return on investment, while reducing runoff and increasing infiltration. In addition, they are often great hunting spots. Planting grass borders creates habitat for wildlife while improving soil, water, and air quality and preventing erosion.
Pheasants Forever and its partnering organizations are providing financial incentives for the installation of field borders along crop fields. Landowners can receive a one-time payment to install native or introduced grass borders.
Examples include little bluestem, deer tongue, switch grass, orchard grass and wildflowers. Each planting is tailored to the acreage and landowner preferences.
Here is another great opportunity for landowners. If your property is ineligible for the Field Border Incentive Program, or if you have different habitat management goals, there may be alternative funding available.
These programs are designed to help implement upland wildlife habitat. Pheasants Forever Wildlife Biologists can also assist with forested or non-cropland habitat management plans.
Since Pennsylvania is more than 80% privately owned, wildlife habitat starts with private landowners. No, there no longer are wild ring neck pheasants in Schuylkill County, however, these programs benefit a wide variety of other wildlife species.
While meadows and prairies are quintessential components of the American landscape, grasslands are one of the most endangered habitats in North America today. Flora and fauna dependent on this habitat type are rapidly declining.
The Northern bobwhite has already disappeared from the Keystone state and many of our other iconic birds including Wild Turkey, Eastern Meadowlark and Bobo link are suffering declines as well.
