Michigan
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 Michigan waterfowl hunters. Michigan’s Great Lakes shorelines, inland lakes, and wetlands are significant both as breeding habitat and migration corridors, with many ducks also originating from the Prairie Pothole Region. Ducks Unlimited has conserved 76,411 acres in Michigan with 26,734 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 Michigan.
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/michigan-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/michigan-state-office
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Private Lands Program (PLP)
The Michigan DNR Private Lands Program (PLP) provides private landowners with the resources to create and manage habitat to benefit a variety of wildlife, offering technical and financial assistance for habitat improvements that address wildlife needs.
Deer Habitat Improvement Grants
Grants ranging from $2,000 to $15,000 are available to private landowners in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Lower Peninsula for projects such as tree and shrub planting, converting forest trails into wildlife corridors, and protecting existing habitat with fencing. Applicants must match at least 25% of the cost financially or through in-kind contributions. Applications must be submitted through a qualifying conservation organization, sportsperson group, or local conservation district.
Hunting Access Program (HAP)
HAP is a financial opportunity for landowners willing to open their land to public hunting. The DNR leases private land from participating landowners and can pay up to $30 per acre for high-quality habitat enrolled in a Farm Bill program such as the Conservation Reserve Program, or for land devoted to a wildlife food plot.
Website
Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever Habitat Programs
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters in Michigan 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, Michigan-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 Michigan include elk habitat research in the Glass Mountains of West Michigan and youth conservation education programs across the state.
Website
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
The Michigan 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