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How to Become a Partner

If you are a private landowner and are interested in restoring fish and wildlife habitat on your property, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program may be for you.

Project Criteria

Your project must meet certain criteria in order to qualify for assistance from the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program:

• Your project must restore or enhance habitat.
• Your project must benefit U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service trust species, such as migratory birds, anadromous fish, or threatened and endangered species.
• Your project must be located on nonfederal and non-state land.
• Your project should reestablish natural historical communities with little maintenance.
• There should be a reasonable expectation of success in achieving project objectives.
• You and/or other partners must provide a viable match for the project. You can contribute cash or may provide an in-kind contribution such as labor, use of equipment, or materials.
• Partners for Fish and Wildlife projects are not eligible to be used as compensatory mitigation for purposes of meeting state and federal regulatory program requirements

The Process

An interested landowner contacts a Partners for Fish and Wildlife biologist to discuss his/her ideas and set up a site visit.

The landowner, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife biologist, and representatives from other interested cooperating organizations, meet on the property to evaluate the site and discuss the landowner's goals and objectives.

The Service biologist helps to determine habitat improvements that can be made on the property that would benefit wildlife. Technical advice on project design, material, and engineering is provided by the Service, as appropriate.

Cost sharing options are discussed. The goal is to achieve at least 50 percent of project costs through cost share and/or in-kind contributions from our partners. Projects that involve greater non-Service partnerships and/or cost sharing are more desirable.

A habitat restoration proposal is developed by the Service biologist with assistance from the landowner. The proposal must then compete for the available funds.

After funding is approved, a Wildlife Extension Agreement is signed by the landowner and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The agreement must be for a minimum of 10 years.

Upon project completion, the US Fish and Wildlife Service reimburses the landowner.

The end result of the process: A restored wetland teeming with wildlife!

For more information view the Frequently Asked Questions.

Note: Can you identify the waterbird silhouettes in the list above? Just hold your pointer over the silhouettes to reveal the correct identification.