Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)

WHIP is a voluntary program for people who want to develop and improve wildlife habitat primarily on private lands and nonindustrial private forest land. It provides both technical assistance and cost share payments to help:

• Promote the restoration of declining or important native fish and wildlife species.
• Protect, restore, develop or enhance fish and wildlife habitat to benefit at-risk species.
• Reduce the impacts of invasive species in fish and wildlife habitat.
• Protect, restore, develop or enhance declining or impaired aquatic wildlife species habitat.

Participants who own or control land agree to prepare and implement a wildlife habitat development plan. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides technical and financial assistance for the establishment of wildlife habitat development practices. In addition, if the landowner agrees, cooperating State wildlife agencies and nonprofit or private organizations may provide expertise or additional funding to help complete a project.

Participants work with NRCS to prepare a wildlife habitat development plan in consultation with the local conservation district. The plan describes the participant's goals for improving wildlife habitat, includes a list of practices and a schedule for installing them, and details the steps necessary to maintain the habitat for the life of the agreement. This plan may or may not be part of a larger conservation plan that addresses other resource needs such as water quality and soil erosion.

NRCS and the participant enter into a cost-share agreement for wildlife habitat development. This agreement generally lasts from 5 to 10 years from the date the agreement is signed for general applications and up to 15 years for essential habitat applications. Cost-share payments may be used to establish new practices or replace practices that fail for reasons beyond the participant's control.

All lands are eligible for WHIP, except for:

• Public owned lands (Federal, state, county or local government owned land).
• Land currently enrolled in a Healthy Forest Reserve Program contract.
• Conservation Reserve Program.
• Wetlands Reserve Program or other similar programs.
• Lands where the benefited essential plants in a proposal do not benefit an essential fish and wildlife species.
• Publicly owned lands (Federal, state, county or local government owned lands)

The Illinois WHIP Plan:

The Illinois State Technical Committee formed a subcommittee to develop the state WHIP goals and priorities. This committee had representation from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Farm Services Agency, sportsmen groups, farm groups and environmental groups.

The Illinois WHIP Goals:

• Provide technical and financial assistance to enhance habitat on eligible land for upland, wetland and other types of wildlife, threatened and endangered species, and fisheries.
• Provide program participants with technical assistance and educational materials regarding wildlife habitat needs.
• Foster a positive public attitude toward wildlife, wildlife habitat and land stewardship.

National and Illinois WHIP Priorities:

• Promote the restoration of declining or important native fish and wildlife habitats.
• Reduce the impacts of invasive species on fish and wildlife habitats.
• Protect, restore, develop or enhance fish and wildlife habitat to benefit at-risk species.
• Reduce forest fragmentation in Illinois.
• Support the State's Wildlife Action Plan
• Protect, restore, develop or enhance declining or important aquatic wildlife species' habitat.

Illinois WHIP Partners:

• Illinois Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife Biologist
• US Fish and Wildlife Service
• Pheasants Forever
• Quail Unlimited
• National Wild Turkey Federation
• The Nature Conservancy

Steps to the WHIP Application Process for the 2009 Fiscal Year:

Prior to WHIP Sign Up:
Conservation planning completed prior to application ranking allows the ranking process to move more quickly, because the applicant, with help from NRCS, will already have identified the conservation needs and concerns. Conservation plans completed prior to ranking that address all the resource concerns on the farm can yield more points within an application. Planning prior to applying for WHIP also helps ensure the applicant is requesting WHIP funds for the correct practices.

Step 1: Signing up for WHIP at Your Local NRCS Field Office:
WHIP has a continuous sign-up process; applicants can sign up anytime of the year at their local NRCS field office. To sign up for WHIP, applicants must complete the NRCS-CPA-1200 form at their local field office. At the time of application, the applicant will also be provided with a copy of the NRCS-CPA-1202 Contract Appendix, explaining WHIP contract terms and conditions. Reviewing the contract appendix up front helps the applicant know the contract terms and conditions.

Step 2: FY 2009 Illinois WHIP Ranking Criteria:
Illinois uses a web-based ranking criteria tool for ranking applications, which will be completed by your local NRCS field office. The web-based ranking tool includes the following:

• Yes/No questions for each ranking category, and
• State and National ranking questions.

 The ranking questions that are used in the web based ranking tool can be downloaded below.

The following documents require either Adobe Acrobat 6.0 or higher.

EQIP 2009 Web-Based Ranking Criteria Tools

Step 3: Practices Available for WHIP Funds:
Practices available for WHIP funds can be found in the “WHIP Conservation Practices and Payment Method” lists within each of the ranking criteria and in the FY2009 WHIP Payment list found in Ranking Criteria-Supporting Documents WHIP 2009.

FY 2009 WHIP Practices for Ranking Criteria

Practices selected for the WHIP application must address the resource concerns identified by the applicant with assistance from the NRCS field office. WHIP applications must include all planned practices that contributed to the ranking score. All practices must meet NRCS standards and specifications, which can be found in section IV of the Illinois eFOTG.

When completing the application process, the field office will explain the payment rate that the applicant will receive for each practice. The applicant will then need to decide if they want to proceed with an WHIP contract, if funded.

Step 4: Funding WHIP Applications:
All applications for WHIP will compete on a state-wide basis, within each of the ranking criteria categories. Applying for WHIP is continuous; however, selecting applications for funding is done periodically through batching periods with specific cutoff dates. Applicants should visit your local field office as soon as possible to begin the application process.

In order for an application to be considered for funding during a particular batching period the applicant must have the following items completed by the batching period cutoff date:

• Completed and signed WHIP application and appendix;
• Eligibility requirements;
• Completed and signed ranking criteria;
• List of practices that address the resource concerns identified; and
• Schedule for implementation of the practices selected.
• Adjusted Gross Income form

Contact Information:

For help with the WHIP program in Illinois contact your local NRCS office.

Download Forms and Factsheets

Update 5/22/2009