Are you trying to enhance your land but can't find the funds or technical assistance to achieve your goals?
If your land management objectives include conservation enhancements, there may be a program available to help provide you with both financial and technical assistance. Check out the list below for some ideas and resources that may match your needs. Many of these assistance and incentive programs are administered or facilitated by NRCS, Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District (LSWCD), and/or MidCoast Watersheds Council on behalf of landowners.
Land Easement & Retirement Programs
The Natural Resource Conservation Service is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture. The NRCS provides access to multiple conservation programs, some of which it administers in partnership with the Farm Service Agency. Lincoln SWCD and the Mid Coast Basin NRCS Conservationist collaborate on many projects together. The Mid Coast Basin Conservationist shares office space at the Lincoln SWCD Office.
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)
CREP is a program that helps agricultural producers protect environmentally sensitive land, decrease erosion, restore wildlife habitat, and safeguard ground and surface water. By forming a partnership between producers, tribal, state, and federal governments, sensitive areas are enrolled under a rental agreement to protect the resources on that site. See the FSA website for more information, as this is a Farm Service Agency-administered program.
Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP)
This program provides an opportunity for landowners to receive financial incentives to enhance wetlands in exchange for retiring marginal land from agriculture. There are 3 enrollment options: Permanent Easement, a 30-year Easement, and Restoration Cost-Share Agreement. For more information on this NRCS-administered program, visit the NRCS website.
Natural Resource Protection & Enhancement
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
Farmers and ranchers may receive financial and technical help to install or implement structural and management-based conservation practices on eligible agricultural land. Contracts can be 1 to 10 years in length with a cost share of up to 75% (generally falling into the 50% cost-share range). A sub-category of EQIP is the Conservation Innovation Grants. These are competitive grant awards to stimulate innovative approaches to environmental enhancement and protection, in conjunction with agricultural production. Visit the Environmental Quality Incentives Program page for more information.
Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)
WHIP provides technical and financial assistance to landowners and others to develop upland, wetland, riparian, and aquatic habitat areas on their property. A noted difference between WHIP and other programs, such as EQIP, is that each application is ranked at the state level and is competing with other applications from across the state. For more information, visit the NRCS website.
Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board Grant Program (OWEB)
OWEB provides a variety of grants. Project types include restoration, land acquisitions, education/outreach, technical assistance, and local innovation. All grants require at least a 25% match. Grant application deadlines vary by project type; check OWEB’s website for detailed information and applications.
Western Oregon Stream Restoration Program (WOSRP)
The Western Oregon Stream Restoration Program (WOSRP) provides direct technical support to Watershed Councils and private landowners in western Oregon to implement Oregon Plan measures directing the restoration and enhancement of Oregon's salmonid habitats in the region. This includes projects to increase instream habitat complexity by adding large wood or boulders, enhancing riparian areas by protection or planting, and correcting fish passage problems. Further information can be obtained by contacting your nearest biologist on the WOSRP page.
Access & Habitat Program (A&H)
The goals of this program, funded solely by hunting licenses, are to:
- increase wildlife habitat
- help mitigate damage caused by wildlife, and
- increase hunters’ access.
To qualify for A&H funding, a project must improve wildlife habitat, increase public hunting access to private land, or solve a wildlife damage issue. Some examples of projects that have been approved and implemented to date include development of wetland habitat, noxious weed control, improving wildlife forage on private lands, developing water in arid regions, riparian fencing, seeding after wildfire, hunting leases, land acquisition, seasonal road management and hunter access through private lands to inaccessible public lands. Projects may be on private or public lands, through preference is given to projects on private lands.
Project grants are typically under $100,000, and no match is required.
Applications are accepted quarterly, and decisions are made by the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Contact your local ODFW wildlife biologist (541) 867-0300 for assistance in drafting a proposal, or visit the WOSRP page.
Partners for Fish & Wildlife (PFW)
This USFWS program can provide up to 50% of the cost, with a maximum of $25,000 per project, for work that improves habitat for fish and wildlife that are listed on the Endangered Species Act or are proposed for listing. Project types include restoring fish passage, screening diversions, riparian restoration, fencing, off-stream water troughs, and wetlands restoration. The program also funds improvements to habitats used by migratory songbirds and other non-aquatic wildlife. Application period is open; email program coordinator Timmie Mandish, or call (503) 231-6179.
Instream & Streamside Improvements
Restoration & Enhancement Program (R&E)
The goal of this program, funded solely by fishing licenses, is to fund projects that benefit sport fisheries. Applicants must be a public or private non-profit entity or a Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program (STEP) organization. Typical project award is under $100,000, and there is no match requirement, although matching funds are highly encouraged. For more information, contact state R&E coordinator Laura Tesler (503) 947-6259 or check the ODFW website. The application can be completed online via the website; grants are awarded quarterly.
Listed above under Natural Resource Protection/Enhancement programs, the following also fund instream projects:
- OWEB: Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board grant program – large and small
- USFWS: Partners for Fish & Wildlife
- NRCS: Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)
- ODFW: Landowner Incentives Program (LIP)
Fish Screening & Passage Program
Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) will provide up to 60% of the project costs when installing a fish screen, up to $75,000. An Oregon State tax credit is also available. Dam removal and fish passage components can also be funded, but not fish screen maintenance or culvert replacement. Applications are accepted at any time for ODFW’s screen shop constructed projects and for pump screens. Privately constructed large project applications are accepted once each year. These would include large diversion screens such as those used by irrigation districts. ODFW can access federal funds to help with the cost-share, but preference may be given to projects in which the water user puts in at least 10% of the match.
Water Conservation, Reuse & Storage Grant Program
The Oregon Water Resources Department has $750,000 available for funding under the Water Conservation, Reuse and Storage Grant Program (Program). The Program provides match funding for project planning studies performed to evaluate the feasibility of developing a water conservation, reuse, or storage project (OAR 690-600). These funds are available on a competitive basis to a local government, an Indian tribe, or a person.
The Department requests that application for funding be limited to a maximum of $250,000. Funding recipients will be required to demonstrate funding from another source that is not less than a dollar-for-dollar match of the amount of Program funding requested (i.e., at least $25,000 from another source to match the $25,000 in Program funds requested). To be considered for funding, applications must be received at the Department’s Salem office between August 15 and November 1 annually. Applicants are encouraged to submit their applications prior to the November 1 deadline.
For a project planning study associated with a proposed storage project that would: a) Impound surface water on a perennial stream; b) Divert water from a stream that supports sensitive, threatened or endangered fish; or c) Divert more than 500 acre-feet of surface water annually, the proposed project planning study must contain the following elements:
- Analyses of by-pass, optimum peak, flushing, and other ecological flows of the affected stream and the impact of the storage project on those flows
- Comparative analyses of alternative means of supplying water, including but not limited to the costs and benefits of conservation and efficiency alternatives, and the extent to which long-term water supply needs may be met using those alternatives
- Analyses of environmental harm or impacts from the proposed storage project
- Evaluation of the need for and feasibility of using stored water to augment in-stream flows to conserve, maintain, and enhance aquatic life, fish life, and any other ecological values
- For a proposed storage project that is for municipal use, an analysis of local and regional water demand and the proposed storage project’s relationship to existing and planned water supply projects is required.
Tax Incentive Programs
Wildlife Habitat Conservation & Management Program (WHCMP)
The Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program (habitat program), administered by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), is a cooperative effort involving state and local governments and other partners to help private landowners voluntarily conserve native wildlife habitat. The Oregon Legislature created the habitat program to offer an incentive for private landowners who want to provide wildlife habitat on their properties instead of, or in addition to, farming, growing timber, or other land uses. Under the habitat program, land subject to an approved wildlife habitat conservation and management plan receives a wildlife habitat special assessment, where property taxes are assessed at the relatively low value that would apply if the land were being farmed or used for commercial forestry.
The objective of the habitat program is to preserve, enhance, or improve the composition, structure, or function of habitats for native wildlife species. Prior to 2003, the habitat program was available only to rural landowners with properties zoned for exclusive farm use or mixed farm and forest use. House Bill 3616 in 2003 added land that is clearly identifiable as containing significant wildlife habitat. Now, counties and cities can select lands for eligibility based on zoning and/or significant native wildlife habitat.
Riparian Lands Tax Incentive Program
The Riparian Tax Incentive Program, authorized by ORS 308A.350—308A.383, offers a property tax incentive to property owners for improving or maintaining qualifying riparian lands. Under this program, property owners receive complete property tax exemption for their riparian property. This can include land up to 100 feet from a stream.
When the Riparian Tax Incentive law was passed in 1981, the Oregon Legislative Assembly declared that "it is in the best interest of the state to maintain, preserve, conserve and rehabilitate riparian lands to assure the protection of the soil, water, fish and wildlife resources of the state for the economic and social well-being of the state and its citizens." Healthy riparian zones are important to the resource by providing: cooler water due to shading, resulting in better habitat for salmon, trout, and steelhead; more and better varieties of habitat for wildlife; increased water during summer low flow periods; erosion control by stabilizing streambanks with protective vegetation; and flood control.
A landowner and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife must sign a riparian management plan and agreement. A management plan must detail measures the landowner will implement to preserve, enhance, or restore the riparian area.
For riparian land to qualify for this program, it must be outside adopted urban growth boundaries, and planned and zoned as forest or agricultural lands (including rangeland), or must have met these criteria as of July 1, 1997. Contact the ODFW Restoration Biologist to learn more.
