FY2011 Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program Information

The Wildlife Habitat Incentives program (WHIP) is a voluntary conservation program to develop and improve wildlife habitat primarily on private land.  Through WHIP, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides financial and technical assistance to help protect, restore, develop, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat.

 The landowner or operator agrees to prepare and implement a wildlife habitat development plan.  The plan will describe the goals for improving wildlife habitat and become the basis for the cost-share agreement.  The agreement will include a list of practices, the installation schedule, and will last from one year after the final conservation practice is implemented not to exceed ten years. 

Application Deadline

WHIP applications are accepted throughout the year at your local USDA Service Center; however, the cut-off date for 2011 funding consideration is November 12, 2010.  Applications received after November 12, 2010, will be considered for funding in the next ranking period. 

Conservation Program Application (NRCS-CPA-1200)

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for WHIP, the applicant and the land must be determined eligible.  If the applicant fails to meet eligibility requirements by the cut-off date for current funding consideration in the current fiscal year, the application will be determined “Ineligible”.  Eligible land is agricultural and nonindustrial private forestland.  Publically owned land is ineligible.

Ranking Worksheets

All applications are ranked by the NRCS staff using the applicable web-based ranking tool.  The questions within each tool will evaluate each application and will award higher priority to applications that use cost-effective conservation practices, address local priorities, and provide the most environmental benefit.

To determine which ranking tool use to select, assess which conservation practices are planned by habitat type.  The selection should be made based on where the majority of the practice payments are planned.  Once the habitat type is determined the applicable tool is selected.

• Enhancement of Grassland (PDF; 8 KB)
• Riparian Habitat (PDF; 8 KB)
• Upland Herbaceous Habitat (PDF; 8 KB)
• Wetland Habitat (PDF; 8 KB)
• Winter Habitat (PDF; 8 KB)

Conservation Practice List and Practice Payment Schedule

The WHIP Payment Schedule identifies the conservation practices offered through WHIP.

• FY2011 WHIP Practice Payment Schedule (PDF; 643 KB)

Links to Other Useful Documents

• WHIP Fact Sheet (PDF; 45 KB)
• Historically Underserved Fact Sheet (PDF; 52 KB)

Program Contact

Jeff VanderWilt, Assistant State Conservationist for Programs, 605-352-1226
Denise Gauer, Resource Conservationist, (605) 352-1203

< Back to Programs >