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1-D-1 Wildlife Tax Valuation
A Wildlife Tax Valuation can serve as a great alternative to Agricultural Valuations. A Wildlife Valuation allows landowners to keep the same low Agricultural Tax Valuations on their property but regain flexibility in their agricultural operation. Landowners with existing Ag Valuations may convert to a Wildlife Valuation by agreeing to a schedule of wildlife habitat management activities meant to improve the health of our native Texas flora and fauna. To learn more about the Wildlife Valuation process, click below.
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Agricultural Conservation Easement Program
The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, which includes the Wetlands Reserve Easements and Agricultural Land Easements, help landowners protect and restore their land by limiting conversion to non-agricultural uses. USDA-NRCS will work with landowners to develop conservation plans that will restore ecosystem function among working lands, all while cost sharing the easement purchase price.
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American Farmland Trust
The American Farmland Trust promotes the protection of agricultural land through technical assistance, conservation easements, and financial grants. For more information on their programs, visit the website linked below.
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Audubon Texas
Audubon Texas offers assistance to Texas landowners through educational workshops, technical guidance, conservation partnerships, and participation in the Audubon Conservation Ranching Program. To learn more about the program and how Audubon can help you, contact us at
[email protected] or click below to visit our website.
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Buffer Lands Incentive Program
Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation’s (TPWF) Buffer Lands Incentive Program (BLIP) helps pay due-diligence and transaction costs for placing conservation easements on private land buffering state parks and wildlife areas.
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Coastal Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (C-GRIP)
The Coastal Grassland Restoration Incentive Program provides cost-share funding, technical expertise, and management guidance to enhance wildlife habitat.
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Conservation Loan Program
The USDA-FSA Conservation Loan Program provides low-interest loans to farmers and ranchers to install conservation structures and practices.
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Conservation Reserve Program
The USDA-FSA Conservation Reserve Program is a voluntary program that offers per acre annual payments as well as technical assistance for farmers to return farmed fields to native grass plantings. Farmers enroll for 10-15 years, and in that time work to benefit water quality, reduce soil erosion, and reduce loss of wildlife habitat.
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Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands
This USDA-FSA program pays landowners to protect grassland, including rangeland and pastureland, while maintaining the areas as grazing lands.
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Conservation Stewardship Program
The USDA-NRCS’ Conservation Stewardship Program is aimed at supporting landowners and managers who want to build on their existing conservation efforts while strengthening their operation. The CSP provides annual payments in return for a number of best management practices selected by the operator.
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Conservation Technical Assistance
The USDA-NRCS offers free technical guidance to farmers and ranchers looking to conserve and benefit their natural resources.
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Continuous Conservation Reserve Program
The USDA-FSA Continuous Conservation Reserve Program incentivizes the use of buffers, windbreaks, filter strips, and field borders by offering annual, per-acre payments to farmer looking to improve the functionality of their fields.
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Ducks Unlimited Texas Prairie Wetlands Project
Ducks Unlimited partners with landowners to create and enhance shallow wetlands to support migratory waterfowl and ecosystem health.
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Environmental Quality Incentive Program
The USDA-NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentive Program is designed to help lessen the cost burden on land managers applying conservation practices. Operators can work with local NRCS Specialists to choose from hundreds of cost share eligible practices and design a conservation plan to fit their goals and objectives.
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Feral Swine Control Pilot Program
This USDA-NRCS program is designed to help landowners control feral hog populations and minimize their threat to agriculture, ecosystems, and the health of humans and animals. Landowners are loaned “smart traps” to utilize on their property in an attempt to reduce populations. To learn more and see if your county is eligible, click below.
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Forest Legacy Program
This USDA-Forest Service program is a voluntary cooperative effort between the U.S. Forest Service and the State of Texas that works to conserve ecologically important forests in Texas through conservation easements. If you have qualifying land that you wish to remain in its natural state, the U.S. Forest Service will fund 75% of the easement purchase cost. To learn more about the program and conservation easements, click below.
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Forest Stewardship Program
Texas A&M Forest Service, through funding from the USDA-Forest Service, offers technical and financial assistance to qualifying landowners to create and implement stewardship plans on forested lands. To learn more about the Forest Stewardship Program or to get in touch with a professional forester, click below.
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Gulf Coast Joint Venture
The Gulf Coast Joint Venture (GCJV) is a partnership between Federal and State Agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners dedicated to bird habitat conservation planning and evaluation along the Gulf Coast. To learn more about the GCJV and their habitat conservation projects, click below.
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Landowner Incentive Program
TPWD’s Landowner Incentive Program provides technical and financial support to private landowners looking to improve their wildlife habitat. Land managers will contact their local wildlife biologist and build a habitat management plan that fits their goals and objectives. To learn more about the Landowner Incentive Program, click below.
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LCRA Creekside Conservation Program
The LCRA Creekside Conservation Program supports landowners in restoring riparian areas by providing project assistance for streamside habitat improvements.
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Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture
The Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV) works to coordinate the most efficient and effective conservation delivery in east Texas, advancing the science behind large-scale bird habitat management. To learn more about LMVJV and landowner programs, click below.
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National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) Legacy Landscapes Program
The National Grazing Lands Coalition’s Legacy Landscape program offers technical and financial support to cow-calf operations interested in improving their record keeping and implementing improvements to the land.
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Native Prairies Association of Texas
The Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT) is an accredited land trust which can place permanent protections on land through a conservation easement. To learn more about conservation easements and the restoration work NPAT carries out on its partner properties, click below to visit their website.
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Northeast Texas Conservation Delivery Network Habitat Incentive Program
This program provides targeted technical assistance and cost-share funding for landowners to initiate habitat-specific projects.
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Oak Wilt Suppression Project
This project allows landowners to receive partial funding for efforts to stop the spread of oak wilt, a devastating fungal disease of red oaks and live oaks. Texas A&M Forest Service offers technical and financial assistance, up to 40% of the cost, to remove infected red oaks and trench around infected oaks to stop the expansion of oak wilt centers.
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Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture
Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture (OPJV) operates in the Edwards Plateau and Oaks and Prairie’s regions of Texas to ensure sustainable bird populations through planning and facilitating habitat conservation, research, and outreach.
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OPJV Grassland Restoration Incentive Program
The Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (GRIP) is a multi-organization partnership program in Texas and Oklahoma aimed at combatting the steep decline of grassland bird species. GRIP is designed to offer another source of cost-share funding to landowners in eligible counties wishing to improve their habitat through brush management, prescribed burning, range planting, and a number of other beneficial practices. To learn more about GRIP eligibility and practices as well as find your local OPJV point of contact, click below.
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Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
This voluntary program provides free technical and financial assistance to landowners interested in improving wildlife habitat on their land. Landowners consult with USFWS biologists to create a project plan that meets their own goals and improves conditions for wildlife.
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Partners for Habitat Program
The Partners for Habitat Program provides technical expertise, planning, and cost-share support for practices like brush management, grassland restoration, and water enhancements that benefit desert species.
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Pastures for Upland Birds
This program offers cost assistance and technical guidance to landowners in the east-central Texas area looking to restore farm fields and pastureland back to native prairie grasses. TPWD will work with landowners to provide technical guidance, herbicide, native grass and forb seed mixes, and even a no-till seeder when available. They will also provide a project plan to ensure the success of your prairie restoration. Click below to view the programs focus area and learn more about Pastures for Upland Birds (PUB).
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Playa Lakes Joint Venture
The Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving the playas and prairies within the Texas Panhandle to benefit birds, other wildlife, and people. Playa lakes are essential habitat components of many wildlife species, and serve as major sources of groundwater recharge. PLJV works to restore and maintain these pertinent habitats along with other wetlands and grasslands through science, conservation planning, and on the ground action. To learn more about PLJV landowner resources, click below.
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Rio Grande Joint Venture
The Rio Grande Joint Venture (RGJV) is a public-private partnership working to plan, implement, and monitor conservation action and science in the Rio Grande valley and surrounding areas. They collaborate with GRIP, LIP, and Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program to bring landowners cost assistance for conservation efforts. To learn more about what RGJV offers landowners, click below.
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Safe Harbor Agreements
Safe Harbor Agreements are voluntary agreements between landowners and USFWS that allow landowners who actively contribute to the recovery of federally listed species on their land to be shielded from further land use restrictions under the Endangered Species Act.
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South Texas Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (Rio Grande Joint Venture)
This program provides cost-share and technical assistance to help landowners apply habitat restoration.
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Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Cost Share Program
Texas A&M Forest Service, through funding from the USDA Forest Service, offers cost assistance to qualifying landowners to implement conservation practices to prevent or minimize Southern Pine Beetle infestation. To learn more about the program and to determine your eligibility, click below.
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Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
SARE offers grants to support research conducted on agricultural land by or in partnership with farmers and ranchers. The Producer Grant allows landowners to carry out their own experimental projects and test the implementation of new ideas of their farms. To learn more about the Producer Grant, visit the Southern SARE website linked below.
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Texas A&M Forest Service Mitigation and Prevention Prescribed Fire Grants
Several grant opportunities are available for private landowners to help implement prescribed burning to reduce hazardous fuel loads and protect communities across the state.
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Texas Coastal Prairie Initiative
The Texas Coastal Prairie Initiative offers technical guidance, collaborative planning, and targeted funding to improve grasslands and strengthen habitat resilience along the Gulf Coast.
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Texas Grasslands and Savannas Initiative
The Texas Grasslands and Savannas Initiative provides technical assistance and cost-share to improve habitat for declining grassland wildlife.
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Texas Land Trust Council
The Texas Land Trust Council (TLTC) is a collection of land trusts operating throughout the state of Texas. Visit their website to locate land trusts operating in your area.
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Texas Longleaf Conservation Assistance Program
This program provides both financial and technical assistance to eligible landowners for the establishment, enhancement, and management of Longleaf Pine in Texas. To get more information and to determine your eligibility for cost assistance, click below.
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Texas Playa Conservation Initiative
Playa wetlands are essential to our functional panhandle ecosystem and thanks to the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative, restoring playa lakes can have even more benefits for landowners. This cooperative program between Texas Parks and Wildlife, Playa Lakes Joint Venture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, and Texan by Nature allows landowners to receive per-acre payments for restoring their playa lakes and keeping them intact. To learn more about the program, click below.
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Upper Trinity Conservation Trust
The Upper Trinity Conservation Trust provides grants to improve water quality and riparian areas in alignment with the Denton County Greenbelt Plan. The organization can also help permanently protect land through a conservation easement. To learn more about both programs, click below to visit their website.
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Water Quality Management Plan
A water quality management plan allows landowners to receive cost share for installing practices that improve water quality and quantity throughout their watershed. To learn more about the program and get started, click below.
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Water Supply Enhancement Program
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Wildlife Habitat Federation
The Wildlife Habitat Federation (WHF) provides on the ground management, restoration, and habitat conservation to landowners throughout the state. Through their conservation planning and assistance program, WHF will work with you to plan and fund your habitat improvement and restoration efforts. To learn more about WHF and apply for their programs, click below.
