Payment between 50 and 70 dollars per acre for eligible landowners.
Sheboygan, Wis. –-(Ammoland.com)- The Sheboygan/Manitowoc Pheasants Forever chapter is offering a signing bonus for landowners enrolling in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) General Sign-up 45, which runs May 20 through June 14 2013.
The chapter will pay landowners $50 per acre for up to 10 acres, and for those enrolling more than 10 acres, $75 per acre.
“This is our way of helping get more grassland habitat for pheasants and other wildlife in our community,” said Craig Lukasavitz, chapter president. “The lack of grasslands is a major cause for low pheasant populations in our area, and we hope the bonus will get landowners who are on the fence about signing up for CRP to enroll in the program.”
Active in upland restoration, the chapter annually provides no-cost food plot seed to landowners who want to plant winter food plots for pheasants and other wildlife. The program is coordinated by chapter volunteer Dan Renzelman who noted, “This year the chapter ordered 40 bags of corn, 10 bags of soybean and 15 bags of sorghum. To date, all but one bag of corn and sorghum were given to cooperating landowners.”
In accordance with Pheasants Forever’s local chapter model, the Sheboygan/Manitowoc Chapter uses funds raised by its annual banquet to provide for programs throughout its community. The banquet is held each February and is open to those volunteers who want to be involved in local wild habitat projects and reintroducing youth to the outdoors.
Landowners willing to take part in the chapter’s CRP signing bonus program will have to sign an agreement with the Sheboygan/Manitowoc Pheasants Forever chapter to keep the land in CRP for 10 years. Funds for this chapter program are limited and are on a first come, first served basis.
Wisconsin is home to 33 Pheasants Forever chapters and over 9,000 members. For more information about the chapter program, please contact Craig at 920-892-2511 / email Craig or Dan at 920-627-6665 / email Dan. For all other questions, please contact Doug Fendry, Pheasants Forever regional wildlife biologist, at (608) 843-7999 / email Doug.
Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division, Quail Forever, is the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 135,000 members and 720 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent, the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure.
Pheasants Forever is dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs. https://www.pheasantsforever.org/