LANDOWNER INCENTIVE PROGRAM
The Landowner Incentive Program was created in 2003 to provide technical and financial assistance to private landowners for the restoration, enhancement and protection of habitats important to a wide range of at-risk, non-game wildlife species. Keeping plant and animal populations healthy is the main goal.
EVERYONE WINS WHEN WILDLIFE ARE HELPED
The prairies have changed dramatically since northwestern Oklahoma was first homesteaded. Today there is less habitat because of practices like increased stocking rates and conversion of native rangeland to cropland. Conserving prairie wildlife today, before they become very rare, saves taxpayers’ dollars tomorrow. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
THE WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT COULD PAY YOU TO EXPAND PRAIRIE HABITAT
Some human interactions with wildlife species have had huge detrimental effects. Development, bulldozing and loss of habitat have caused a dramatic decline in the number of prairie dogs. This is important due to the number of other animals that rely upon them. Some of these species include: black-footed ferret, lesser prairie chicken and ferruginous hawk.
WILL THIS PROGRAM INTERFERE WITH MY GRAZING PRACTICES?
There are no restrictions to your property rights under this program. You may continue to graze livestock, just as you always have.
Evidence has shown that prairies are capable of supporting both prairie dogs and livestock. The program makes such an arrangement economically and ecologically feasible.
WHY ARE PRAIRIE DOGS IMPORTANT?
The black-tailed prairie dog is a keystone species of the shortgrass prairie. It is important because there is a direct connection between the presence of prairie dog towns and the presence of other species, both plant and animal. One example of this relationship is the black-footed ferret. Its primary food source is the prairie dog. As prairie dog numbers decline, so has the ferret’s. You will not find a ferret in Oklahoma today.
Not only are prairie dogs an important food source, the habitat they create make living quarters and nesting chambers for burrowing owls, swift foxes, mountain plovers and a variety of reptiles and amphibians that are essential to the environment of the shortgrass prairie.
I’M INTERESTED IN THIS PROGRAM-WHAT DO I DO NOW?
Fill out a simple one-page application. A biologist will contact you to evaluate your land based on existing prairie habitat. If selected, the Wildlife Department will work with you to create a personalized conservation agreement. The agreement outlines management strategies for prairie dogs and associated species, as well as their habitats.
HELP FOR OTHER HABITATS
The Landowner Incentive Program can assist private landowners to help other non-game wildlife that are at risk of declining by restoring and enhancing playa lakes in the southern high plains of Oklahoma. There is cost-share funding to assist landowners in returning playas to native vegetation and incentive payments to return these areas to their natural state. Funding is also available to help in the reduction and removal of salt cedar, an invasive woody plant that is populating our western streams.
For additional information, contact Larry Wiemers: (580) 254-9173 or lwiemers@sbcglobal.net.
For Landowner Incentive Program Application click here.
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