Conservation Assistance Project   (Technical Assistance offerings for municipalities, regional commissions, non-governmental organizations, & private landowners)

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department has a long tradition of assistance to landowners and municipalities on issues of planning and improvement of wildlife habitat. That effort continues as we offer (in coordination with partnering organizations), three integrated programs to maintain and improve wildlife habitat in Vermont . Department staff can serve as contact people to help you find the sort of assistance you need. These programs operate with different target groups, but all three work to coordinate and integrate the assistance we offer.  

Below is a comparison chart followed by more complete descriptions of each program

 

Community Wildlife Program (CWP)

The Community Wildlife Program provides assistance and resources for professional and lay planners in Vermont . We help regional and municipal planning commissions and non-governmental organizations in their efforts to protect wildlife habitat and significant natural communities by providing them with the most up-to-date information on conservation science and help them with the implementation of their conservation projects.

We help towns identify their important wildlife habitat by providing data for GIS review as well as instruction in how to do field work and how to use these information sources. We help towns translate conservation goals that the community has agreed on into language suitable for the Town Plan and further assist with turning that language into appropriate zoning and subdivision regulations that bring these conservation goals into action. We help towns and organizations connect with other assistance organizations and finding funding in moving their goals forward. 

Landowner Incentive Program (LIP)

The Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) helps landowners by providing funding to protect and restore habitats on private lands to benefit at-risk species and natural communities. Any lands that are not government owned are eligible. Species at risk include wildlife and plants identified by the State as in need of conservation. In Vermont , these include rare, threatened and endangered plants and animals. Eligible natural communities include all state significant natural communities tracked by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s Nongame and Natural Heritage Program

Although land throughout Vermont is eligible, land located in the Champlain Valley will be given a higher priority. These lands have been designated as geographical focus area for the first round of funding because many of Vermont ’s most rare plant and animal species are associated with the Champlain Valley - the region of the state with the greatest concentration of human population and agricultural land use. LIP targets in the Champlain Valley include all significant natural communities and rare, threatened and endangered plants and animals. In addition, we have an additional focus on Valley Clayplain Forest and Sandplain Forests, the two most threatened communities in the Valley.

The Fish and Wildlife Department’s role in implementing LIP is to provide technical and financial assistance to private landowners for projects that enhance, protect, or restore habitats that benefit at-risk-species on privately owned lands. Working in coordination with landowners and other partners, staff biologists can design each project to best suit the needs of individual landowners, their land, and the diversity of wildlife present. Both the purchase of conservation easements and reimbursement for land management activities over a period of time, provide necessary financial assistance for landowners.

Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP)

With many Vermont landowners interested in managing their land for wildlife, the need for technical and financial assistance has become more evident. Recently, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) have partnered together to help provide technical assistance for the USDA’s Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program.  WHIP is a voluntary federal program that helps landowners interested in creating and enhancing high quality wildlife habitat on their property. Since its implementation in 1998, almost 11,000 people have taken advantage of the program, improving wildlife habitat on more then 1.6 million acres across the United States. 

NRCS and the Department of Fish & Wildlife have joined forces in this mission to help create high quality fish and wildlife habitat here in Vermont. Department staff assist NRCS with the planning, and implementation of WHIP plans. They help develop these conservation plans, give recommendations on carrying out these plans, and certify that practices have been completed according to the conservation plan.