Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative (LPCI)

Producers in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado are helping the lesser prairie-chicken rebound by voluntarily conserving habitat on their land. 

NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to help agricultural producers to voluntarily conserve lesser prairie-chicken habitat on private lands. This assistance helps producers plan and implement a variety of conservation activities, or practices, that benefit the bird and agricultural operations.

Technical assistance is free to producers, through which the agency’s conservationists work side-by-side with producers to develop a conservation plan. This plan is customized the producer’s land and provides a roadmap for how to use a system of conservation practices to meet natural resource and production goals.

Financial assistance helps producers pay for the adoption of a system of conservation practices that improve the health of prairie and grassland ecosystems. NRCS assistance covers part of the cost. Common conservation practices for the lesser prairie-chicken include the removal of redcedar and mesquite and use of prescribed grazing and burning.

About the Lesser Prairie Chicken:

Best known for their dramatic courtship display, the bird depends on prairie and grassland ecosystems that have evolved under the interaction of fire and large herbivore grazing over the years.

Primarily due to large-scale loss of habitat and fragmentation of habitat, their range distribution has been reduced by roughly 85 percent. About 95 percent of the lesser prairie chicken’s habitat is privately owned, making the land management decisions of producers pivotal to the bird’s success. Stewardship-minded producers are helping the at-risk bird and many other wildlife species by voluntarily improving the health of prairie and grassland ecosystems.

• Own land in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas or New Mexico.

• An official tax ID (Social Security number or an employer ID)

• A property deed or lease agreement to show you have control of the property; and

• A farm number.

If you don’t have a farm number, you can get one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm number if you’re interested in financial assistance.

No payment rate, cost-share percentage, contract length, or payment cap is published on the program page. What NRCS does state:

• "NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to help agricultural producers to voluntarily conserve lesser prairie-chicken habitat on private lands."

• "Technical assistance is free to producers, through which the agency's conservationists work side-by-side with producers to develop a conservation plan."

• "Financial assistance helps producers pay for the adoption of a system of conservation practices that improve the health of prairie and grassland ecosystems. NRCS assistance covers part of the cost."

Where the real numbers come from. This is a Working Lands for Wildlife targeting effort, not a funding pot of its own: "WLFW is able to provide technical and financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, two programs funded through the Farm Bill." Payment rates are therefore set practice-by-practice and state-by-state, and NRCS publishes them as state payment schedules — "Review the amount and availability of financial assistance for selected conservation practices in your state." Ask your local USDA service center for the current schedule for your state before budgeting.

Commonly funded practices for this initiative: removal of redcedar and mesquite, prescribed grazing, and prescribed burning. Open to producers in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado. Applications are ranked and funded at key cut-off dates through the year.

Through your local USDA service center — there is no online application and no public application round. NRCS states it plainly: "Contact your local service center to start your application." Find yours with the locator on the program page, or at https://offices.usda.gov. The two forms attached to this record are the ones your conservationist fills out with you, in this order.

Step 1 — Make a plan. "To get started with NRCS, we recommend you stop by your local NRCS field office. We'll discuss your vision for your land." This costs nothing: "NRCS provides landowners with free technical assistance, or advice, for their land. Common technical assistance includes: resource assessment, practice design and resource monitoring. Your conservation planner will help you determine if financial assistance is right for you."

Step 2 — Start the application, and what the two forms are for. "We'll walk you through the application process." First, AD-1026: you work with the office "To fill out an AD 1026, which ensures a conservation plan is in place before lands with highly erodible soils are farmed. It also ensures that identified wetland areas are protected." This is a conservation-compliance certification, not the application itself. Then you "meet other eligibility certifications." Only then comes the actual application: "Once complete, we'll work with you on the application, or CPA 1200." So NRCS-CPA-1200 is the application form, and AD-1026 is a prerequisite certification that must be done first.

Intake is continuous — but the ranking date is the deadline that matters. "Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they're considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time." No single national deadline is published for this initiative. Ranking cut-offs are set state by state — see Application Ranking Dates by State at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/ranking-dates.

Step 3 — What to bring to the office. "As part of the application process, we'll check to see if you are eligible. To do this, you'll need to bring: An official tax ID (Social Security number or an employer ID) A property deed or lease agreement to show you have control of the property; and A farm number. If you don't have a farm number, you can get one from USDA's Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm number if you're interested in financial assistance."

Step 4 — Ranking. "NRCS will take a look at the applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, the amount of conservation benefits the work will provide and the needs of applicants." Note that some states can fast-track strong applications: pre-approval "Enables states to pre-approve applications when they meet or exceed a state's pre-determined minimum ranking score."

Step 5 — Contract, then implement, then get paid. "If you're selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done. Once you sign the contract, you'll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you'll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications." Payment therefore comes after the practice is installed and inspected, not up front.

Who to ask. Your local NRCS district conservationist is the right first call for both eligibility and ranking deadlines — use the service center locator above. For state-level contacts, NRCS publishes a state office directory at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/state-offices/contacts. General USDA enquiries: askusda@usda.gov. A step-by-step version of this process is also published as a printable handout: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/how-to-get-assistance.pdf