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California Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)Contact your local Service Center 2008 WHIP InformationThese documents require Adobe Acrobat. General Program DescriptionThe Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) was established in the 1996 Farm Bill with the primary purpose of helping landowners "develop upland wildlife, wetland wildlife, threatened and endangered species, fish, and other types of wildlife habitat." Administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), WHIP was reauthorized in the 2002 Farm Bill and provides technical and cost share assistance to enhance fish and wildlife habitat in areas of California that have been impacted by agricultural activities. Eligible farmers, ranchers, and other landowners may apply for the WHIP program benefits at any time. Application ranking periods are established to allow evaluation of projects and awarding of contracts based upon an environmental score for each application that achieves the natural resource benefits identified by local, state and national priorities. Practices eligible for cost share and the environmental score is calculated based upon ranking criteria developed with input from Local Work Groups (LWG), Stakeholders and the State Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). To be considered for the current fiscal year WHIP program, applicants must have submitted an application and required eligibility documentation to their local NRCS office no later than close of business on the applicable fiscal year deadline date. The same application deadline applies throughout the state of California. Applications are accepted on a continuous basis but applications that are submitted after the current year cut off date will be evaluate and deferred for ranking until the following fiscal year. General information about the WHIP program can be found at: EligibilityWHIP is the only Farm Bill program that does not require the participant to be an agricultural producer. Eligible lands under the program include the following: privately owned land; federal land when the primary benefit is on private land or Tribal land; State or local government land on a limited basis; and Tribal land. Once the land is determined eligible, NRCS places emphasis on enrolling lands that: promote the restoration of declining or important native wildlife habitat; protect, restore, develop or enhance wildlife habitat of at-risk species (candidate species, and State and Federally listed threatened and endangered species); reduce the impacts of invasive species on wildlife habitats; protect, restore, develop or enhance declining or important aquatic wildlife species’ habitats. Submittal of all applications, determination of eligibility and project evaluation is completed at the local NRCS field office level. Applicants are advised to carefully review all required eligibility requirements including update of farm records administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). All USDA programs require applicants to maintain or update the following records, certifications and financial documents in order to apply for program benefits. Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact their local NRCS and FSA offices to make sure all records are current and correct before submitting a program application. Applicants who submit incomplete applications or whose farm records and certifications are not up to date will be deferred for current year program application. Complete applications must include:
ContactsAlan Forkey, Program Manager Thomas Moore,
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