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USFWS replaces stick with carrot

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has introduced two new incentive programs designed to help private landowners and state agencies protect endangered species. The "private stewardship grant program" and the "landowner incentive program" are dramatic improvements on the old methods for protecting endangered species, according to American Farm Bureau Regulatory Specialist Rick Krause.

"The endangered species act has been used as a club. It has been applied negatively to people, penalizing them and telling them they can't do certain things because endangered species might be present," Krause said. "These new programs are the best way to provide a win-win situation for farmers and to allow them to continue to operate on their property, while at the same time providing benefits to endangered species."

The new programs provide grants to help landowners improve wildlife habitat and to allow states to provide technical and financial assistance. The private stewardship grant program provides grants directly from the Fish and Wildlife Service to individual farmers. The landowner incentive program provides grants from USFWS to state wildlife agencies to allow them to provide funding and technical assistance to private farmers and other landowners who want to protect endangered species on their property. The grants are on a competitive basis at different USFWS regions.

Krause said Farm Bureau is pleased with this new way of doing business. "We felt the better way to protect endangered species and to get them back was to provide active management for these species. These programs will allow farmers who are interested in protecting species to undertake projects to do this, while at the same time, it will not penalize the farmers and ranchers for having endangered species on their property."

caption: Farmers will receive incentives for maintaining wildlife habitat.