Texas
Cost Share Opportunities and Options
Audubon
Audubon Conservation Ranching (ACR)
Audubon Texas’s Conservation Ranching program partners with ranchers and rural landowners to restore grassland habitat for declining bird species through tailored Habitat Management Plans developed with Audubon range ecologists. Ranches that meet rigorous habitat, animal-welfare, and sustainability standards earn the Audubon Certified Bird-Friendly Land seal, which connects beef and bison products to a market premium. The Texas program currently includes 27 certified ranches encompassing more than 437,000 acres of working grasslands under improved management.
Website
audubon.org/texas/projects/audubon-conservation-ranching-texas
Ducks Unlimited
DU Conservation Programs
Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 305,000 acres in Texas, including over 71,000 acres completed in the most recent fiscal year alone. Major efforts include the Texas Prairie Wetlands Project, which works with private landowners across a 28-county Gulf Coast focus area to restore, enhance, and create shallow-water wetlands, as well as large-scale marsh restoration at J.D. Murphree and Richland Creek Wildlife Management Areas.
Website
Farm Service Agency
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) provides annual rental payments and cost-share assistance (up to 50%) to landowners who establish approved conservation cover – such as native grasses, trees, riparian buffers, or pollinator habitat – on eligible cropland. Continuous CRP signup for high-priority practices is available year-round through local FSA county offices.
Contact Information
Contact your local county office for more information.
Website
Habitat One
Free Food Plot Seed
To help ensure wildlife have access to adequate nutrition during these challenging conditions, Habitat One has established a Free Food Plot Seed Program. This program is designed to assist landowners in providing reliable winter food and cover for wildlife through the establishment of dedicated food plots.
Contact
Brooke Fricke, Operations and Administration Manager | Phone: 308-362-7061 | Email: brooke@habitat-one.org
Mule Deer Foundation
Private Lands Program
The Mule Deer Foundation’s Texas Lone Star Chapter works on mule deer conservation across the state, supporting habitat restoration projects including translocation and habitat improvement efforts in West Texas, such as the Black Gap Complex in Brewster County, aimed at restoring self-sustaining, free-ranging mule deer populations.
Website
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
EQIP provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits, including wildlife habitat improvement. Eligible practices include prescribed grazing, brush management, native grass and forb establishment, wetland restoration, and pollinator habitat. EQIP also offers Conservation Incentive Contracts (CIC), which provide additional incentive payments for ongoing management of priority resource concerns, including wildlife habitat.
Payment Rates
Cost-share rates vary by practice and are set annually by the state NRCS office. Many wildlife habitat practices are eligible for enhanced incentive payments through EQIP-CIC.
Contact Information
Contact your local county office for more information.
Website
nrcs.usda.gov/contact/state-office-contacts/texas-state-office
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
CSP rewards producers who maintain and improve existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resource concerns – including wildlife habitat enhancement – on working agricultural land and non-industrial private forest land.
Payment Rates
Annual payments are based on the conservation performance of the producer’s entire operation, with enhanced payments available for installing new conservation activities.
Contact Information
Contact your local county office for more information.
Website
nrcs.usda.gov/contact/state-office-contacts/texas-state-office
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Landowner Incentive Program (LIP)
The Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) provides cost-share of 50% to 75% of total project costs for conservation practices that benefit terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including native plant restoration, exotic vegetation control, prescribed burning, brush management, wetland enhancement, riparian restoration, and forest stand improvement. LIP is a reimbursement program funded in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
TPWD also offers the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program and other Farm Bill-related cost-share programs through its Private Lands and Habitat Program.
Getting Started
Contact your local TPWD office to connect with a staff biologist, who can provide an ecological assessment of your land and walk you through available incentive and assistance programs.
Website
Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever Habitat Programs
Texas is home to 19 Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever chapters with more than 2,500 members statewide, including the Adobe Walls, Palo Duro, Top O’ Texas, Llano Estacado, High Plains, West Texas, Gulf Coast, and Post Oak Savannah chapters. These chapters fund hands-on habitat improvement projects, public access, and education, and have donated funds matched through Pittman-Robertson dollars for upland game bird habitat work on state Wildlife Management Areas.
Website
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF)
Habitat Enhancement Grant Program
Since 1984, Texas-based fundraising has generated over $7.3 million for Elk Foundation habitat work, with more than $770,000 returned to conservation and education projects within the state, including 37 completed projects. RMEF-funded efforts in Texas include elk habitat research in the Glass Mountains of West Texas and youth conservation education programs across the state.
Website
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
The Texas Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program provides free technical and financial assistance to landowners, managers, tribes, corporations, schools, and nonprofits interested in restoring wetland, riparian, and upland wildlife habitat. A phone call or email to the state coordinator is all it takes to schedule an initial site visit.
Contact Information
Cyndee Watson, State Coordinator | (512) 490-0057 | Cyndee_Watson@fws.gov