Illinois
Cost Share Opportunities and Options
Audubon
Audubon Conservation Ranching (ACR)
Audubon’s Conservation Ranching (ACR) program partners with ranchers to maintain native grasslands and bird-friendly habitat. Participating ranches commit to sustainable land stewardship practices that protect habitat for grassland birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. Supporting Audubon-certified beef and bison helps incentivize habitat conservation at the ranch scale.
Website
Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund
Seed a Legacy
The Seed A Legacy Pollinator Habitat Program works with private, public, and corporate landowners across a multi-state Midwest and Great Plains region, including Missouri, to establish high-quality pollinator habitat that benefits honey bees, monarch butterflies, and other pollinators. The program provides high-quality seed mixes free of charge for projects between 2 and 25 acres, along with personalized support from the program’s biologists to help ensure successful establishment and long-term habitat health. More than 7,000 acres of habitat have been established to date.
Eligibility
Applications are accepted year-round; final Fall enrollment decisions are made around September 1 and final Spring enrollment decisions around March 1.
Website
Ducks Unlimited
DU Conservation Programs
The Prairie Pothole Region, Great Lakes Region, and Upper Mississippi River are important to Illinois waterfowl hunters. Illinois sits at the heart of the Mississippi Flyway, providing critical migration habitat for mallards, teal, and diving ducks originating from the Prairie Pothole Region and Great Lakes. Ducks Unlimited has conserved 61,320 acres in Illinois with 25,854 members.
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 (MDF) is dedicated to restoring, improving, and protecting habitat for mule deer, black-tailed deer, and other wildlife. MDF works with hunters, landowners, and wildlife agencies to fund conservation projects, support research, and advocate for sound wildlife management policies in Illinois.
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/illinois-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/illinois-state-office
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Illinois Habitat Fund
The Illinois Habitat Fund provides qualified not-for-profit organizations and governmental entities the opportunity for funding to enhance game and non-game wildlife habitat. Funding for the grant program comes from the sale of Habitat Stamps to sportsmen and sportswomen.
Natural Resources Enhancement Program
The Illinois Natural Resources Enhancement Program offers landowners cost-share funding to encourage them to take marginal, highly erodible agricultural land out of crop production or pasture and restore it to wildlife habitat, particularly land adjacent to public waters and drainage systems. The landowner must enroll at least 5 acres, have an approved management plan, and be subject to a conservation easement that is permanent or not less than ten years.
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
Available in every county except Cook, this program is designed for landowners who have at least 5 acres of unimproved land and agree to improve their property’s native flora and fauna in exchange for a reduced tax assessment. No direct habitat management funds are available through CSP, so landowners are encouraged to pair this program with other cost-share opportunities.
Application
Detailed information, instructions, and application forms are available through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Resource Conservation grants page.
Website
Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever Habitat Programs
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters in Illinois work with landowners on habitat improvement projects, including upland bird habitat restoration, food plots, and native grass and forb plantings. Pheasants Forever Habitat Specialists also provide free technical assistance to help landowners enroll in Farm Bill conservation programs and design wildlife habitat projects.
Website
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF)
Habitat Enhancement Grant Program
Since 1984, Illinois-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 Illinois include elk habitat research in the Glass Mountains of West Illinois and youth conservation education programs across the state.
Website
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
The Illinois 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