Farm Bill: WHIP

The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program encourages the establishment and enhancement of a wide variety of fish and wildlife habitats of national, state, tribal, or local significance. Since 1998, nearly $150 million has been dedicated to the program and over 2.8 million acres (18K contracts) have been enrolled. Whereas other USDA conservation programs included wildlife conservation as a program purpose, WHIP is the only conservation program principally focused on addressing fish and wildlife habitat needs through 5-10 year contracts. Unfortunately, few quantitative fish and wildlife studies to document response to WHIP have been conducted.

The program is popular, generating far more applications than it has been able to fund (about half). Partnership with other organizations is a key aspect of WHIP, involving federal, state and local partners. Whereas WHIP participants contribute to the cost of habitat projects, conservation groups and other organizations play a major role (in FY04 partners contributed $8 million in cost-share or in-kind services). 90% of the acres enrolled in WHIP addressed upland wildlife habitat such as grasslands, shrub-scrub and forests, whereas less than 5% of WHIP lands enrolled were wetland habitats.

Examples of species that have been WHIP targeted include: Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Short-eared Owl, Hawaiian Duck, Snowy Egret, Piping Plover, Osprey, Nene, etc. At the Honolulu Preserve on Oahu, Hawaii, WHIP funds were used to plant 3900 plants listed as endangered and install catchment tanks and irrigation systems. The forest contains some of the last remaining habitat for native forest birds including the Hawaiian Short-eared Owl and the O’ahu ‘Elepaio.

**The Kind bill increases from $85 million to $300 million annual funding for the program. The bill also provides special incentives payments to protect and restore the habitat of federally threatened and endangered species, including the cost of establishing and maintaining habitat.