Indiana
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 and Great Lakes Region are important to Indiana waterfowl hunters. Indiana’s wetlands and river floodplains serve as migration stopovers for ducks produced in the Prairie Pothole Region and Great Lakes areas. Ducks Unlimited has conserved 30,901 acres in Indiana with 15,302 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 Indiana.
Website
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers and forest landowners to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits such as improved water and air quality, conserved ground and surface water, increased soil health, and reduced soil erosion and sedimentation, as well as improved or created wildlife habitat.
Payment Rates
Payment rates vary by practice and may include enhanced incentive payments through EQIP-CIC.
Contact Information
Contact your local county office for more information.
Website
nrcs.usda.gov/contact/state-office-contacts/indiana-state-office
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) helps agricultural producers and forest landowners maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resource concerns.
Payment Rates
Payment rates vary by activity, 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/indiana-state-office
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Wildlife Habitat Cost-Share Program
The Indiana DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife offers several cost-share programs that reimburse private landowners for a portion of the costs of developing and improving wildlife habitat on their property.
Game Bird Habitat Development Program
Reimburses a portion of expenses, up to $330 per acre, for developing habitat for species such as Northern bobwhite, pheasant, and wild turkey. Landowners must own or control 5 or more acres to participate.
Indiana Private Lands Access Program (IPLA)
IPLA provides financial incentive payments, ranging from $3 to $150 per acre depending on species, to private landowners who allow controlled public access hunting on their land. Landowners are also eligible for additional funds for habitat management.
Classified Forest and Wildlands Program
Landowners who follow a professionally written management plan receive a property tax reduction, free technical assistance from DNR foresters and wildlife biologists, and priority for cost-share funding to offset management costs.
Website
in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/landowner-and-wildlife-habitat-assistance
Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever Habitat Programs
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters in Indiana 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, Indiana-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 Indiana include elk habitat research in the Glass Mountains of West Indiana and youth conservation education programs across the state.
Website
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
The Indiana 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