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Private landowners interested in enhancing and restoring critical bog turtle habitat could be eligible for a federally funded grant program totaling approximately $150,000. With bog turtle populations declining in New York State and throughout their range, the Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) for Bog Turtle Management and Protection directs funding to projects on private property that will help the survival of bog turtles and more than 30 other at-risk species through enhancement and protection of critical habitat.

The LIP is administered by DEC and funded through a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. LIP participants must provide 25 percent in matching funds to implement their projects.

Bog Turtles

The survival of the bog turtle will depend on the cooperation of private landowners as nearly all of the turtle’s habitat is on private land.

Bog turtles-New York’s smallest turtle-can live for 40 years or more but are slow to reproduce and are on the state’s endangered species list. In the Northeast, 95 percent of bog turtle habitat is on private land, so survival of the species in the wild is impossible without the collaboration of private landowners.

Grants to [...]