LIP funds are being used in Vermont to initiate a landowner incentive program that offers a variety of
tools to landowners for conservation, which includes funds to purchase conservation easements. The
F&WD'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 species-at-risk on privately
owned lands. Working in coordination with landowners, conservations commissions, land
trusts and other partners, staff biologists can uniquely design each project to best suit the needs
of individual landowners, their land, and the biodiversity present.
LIP staff are working in Salisbury, along with staff from F&WD's Community Wildlife Program and
the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, to provide technical assistance at a different scales and
to reach different goals. Working with the town's Conservation Commission, LIP staff prioritized two
state-significant areas in the town to look at further: Salisbury Swamp and the largest Indiana Bat
(Vermont's only federally endangered mammal) maternity colony in the state. In order to educate the
community about these resources, LIP provides the funds and technical assistance needed to: 1)
spotlight species and natural communities of conservation concern in their local newspaper; 2)
draft and distribute guidelines, distribute them and follow-up with educational workshops for
landowners about the specific management needs for both amphibian and bat habitat; 3) coordinate
local participation in field surveys; and 4) organize field trips. By providing the community with
the help and funds to educate landowners about the important natural resources they own, we can lay
the groundwork for conservation. Our hope is to ultimately provide landowners with the financial
assistance needed for their long-term conservation. This includes payments for the
purchase of conservation easements.
Our hope is to begin to develop similar relationships in communities throughout the state in order
to aid in the conservation of the state's most significant resources. For more information, please
contact the programs coordinator and botanist, Jane Lazorchak, at 479-4405 or
Jane.Lazorchak@state.vt.us.
To download a brochure, please see:
A Service of the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife
The Landowner Incentive Program is a service of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. The Department's mission is:
"the conservation of all species of fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the people of
Vermont."
Three of the Department's planning goals are:
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Conserve, enhance, and restore
Vermont's natural communities, habitats, and species and the ecological processes that sustain them.
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Provide a diversity of fish- and wildlife-based activities and opportunities that allow the safe and ethical viewing, regulated
harvesting, and utilization of fish, plant and wildlife resources consistent with the North American model of fish and wildlife
conservation.
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Maintain safe fish and wildlife based activities and limit harmful human encounters with fish and wildlife species and provide general
public safety service incidental to primary fish and wildlife enforcement duties.
