Illinois Landowners to Preserve
Grassland Wildlife Habitat
New Conservation Reserve Program
Will Restore Habitat for Declining Species
CHICAGO, Illinois—June 3, 2008—Illinois landowners can help protect grassland wildlife by enrolling eligible land in the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE), a new practice of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In response to declining grassland wildlife numbers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed SAFE with a partnership of major conservation organizations: The Nature Conservancy, Pheasants Forever, Illinois Audubon Society, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. SAFE will provide incentives for landowners to restore grassland and wetland habitat that builds on the partners’ grassland conservation efforts.
In Illinois, up to 24,600 acres may be enrolled in the program that seeks to enroll 500,000 acres nationwide. SAFE gives states the flexibility to adapt the popular CRP to address high-priority wildlife objectives. In Illinois, landowners in target areas can help boost populations of economically important and declining wildlife, and provide opportunities for high-quality wildlife related recreation, according to the USDA. Additional benefits include improved water quality and reduced soil erosion.
In Illinois, conservationists recommended target areas based on habitat for declining species like pheasants and prairie-chickens, that require wide-spread grassland and wetland areas throughout the year. “The pheasant harvest in Illinois has dropped from nearly 400,000 per year in the late 1980s, to under 200,000 birds in recent years,” said John Cole, the Upland Wildlife Program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. By providing habitat for pheasants and prairie-chickens, landowners will also be conserving a variety of wildlife, including meadowlarks, bobolinks and other songbirds that have declined by 60 to 90 percent in 40 years.
“By concentrating new habitat near successful conservation areas in landscapes most favorable to grassland wildlife, we expect the increases in pheasants, prairie-chickens, and other wildlife to be dramatic in target enrollment areas,” says Jeff Walk, Conservation Planner for The Nature Conservancy. Target enrollment areas are located in the following counties: Bureau, Carroll, Champaign, Clay, Clinton, DeKalb, Dewitt, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Henry, Iroquois, Jasper, Knox, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McLean, Montgomery, Ogle, Richland, Sangamon, Stephenson, Tazewell, Vermilion, Washington, Whiteside, Winnebago, Woodford.
In addition to annual rental payments, SAFE offers participating landowners the convenience of continuous enrollment, a signing incentive payment, and additional cost-sharing for establishing the new habitat. To determine if property is within a target enrollment area and to enroll in SAFE, landowners should visit their local USDA Service Center. More information on this SAFE project can be found on the Illinois Department of Natural Resources website.
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 18 million acres in the United States, including more than 80,000 acres in Illinois, and have helped preserve more than 117 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.
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