Helping Private Landowners Advance Conservation
Facing our challenges:
Improving conservation efforts on the privately owned lands that constitute more than 90 percent of the state is essential to the overall well-being of Missouri’s fish, forests and wildlife.
Landowners, whether they have large agricultural tracts or small residential parcels, need access to timely information and professional assistance. This will help farmers and landowners implement practices that benefit natural resources and serve their own needs. In some cases, landowners may require specialized equipment or a helping hand from several sources to achieve their objectives in a manner beneficial to conservation.
Goal: The Conservation Department will expand efforts to help private landowners and address the key factors limiting the ability of some to effectively manage their land— knowledge, time, money and equipment.
Results we want to achieve:
- Private landowners and farmers actively managing their land for natural resource and financial sustainability.
- Landowners working together to achieve conservation successes on a larger scale.
- Landowners effectively using state, federal and private conservation assistance programs and technical support.
What we will do:
- Aid private landowner conservation efforts by responding to 40,000 requests annually for information and assistance.
- Provide on-site, technical assistance to over 6,000 landowners per year.
- Develop a comprehensive web-based, interactive guide by 2010 that helps landowners understand and implement conservation actions.
- Showcase effective land management by hosting special field days, workshops or farm tours for landowners.
- Provide staff assistance to take full advantage of conservation-related cost-share programs and work with other public and private partners to increase conservation incentives available to private landowners and farmers.
- Facilitate annual training workshops to support and increase the number of private contractors who provide resource management services directly to landowners.
- Emphasize assistance efforts to landowners who want to work as a group to restore or conserve local natural communities, such as streams, wetlands or native prairies.
What Missourians tell us
Most Missourians (82 percent) agree that the Department should “help private landowners who want to restore native communities of plants and animals.”
Thirty-six percent of Missourians report that they own a farm or rural property, and 70 percent of those landowners use their property for walking or watching wildlife.
Sixty-three percent of Missourians report that they could use information from the Missouri Department of Conservation about planting and caring for trees and shrubs, and 56 percent wanted information about landscaping with native plants.
Only 10 percent of landowners report that they have asked the Department for help with their property.
More than one-half of Missourians report that they are “not aware” of management assistance activities for private landowners. Nearly half of the landowners who have received assistance from the Department own fewer than 125 acres, 70 percent of them spend time in a non-farm job, and 86 percent earn less than 10 percent of their income from farming activities.
