The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), MassWildlife, and the Forest Alliance are partnering to provide technical and financial assistance to private landowners in Massachusetts through the Massachusetts Collaborative for Private Forestland – Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).
RCPP is a federal program that leverages collective resources to find solutions to address natural resource challenges on private lands. This RCPP project focuses on improving and protecting wildlife habitat on forest land in the Commonwealth.
The RCPP provides NRCS funding to plan and enable practices that benefit rare and declining habitats on private lands that can help vulnerable species like New England Cottontail and Eastern Box Turtle and expand on existing habitat projects on public lands.
Conducting targeted management on private and municipal lands is an important element of habitat and wildlife conservation. More than 75% percent of woodlands in Massachusetts is privately owned; 8% more is owned by municipalities. These lands are important to provide homes for rare and common wildlife as well as for providing outdoor recreation opportunities including hunting, hiking, and birding.
This collaboration furthers MassWildlife’s goals of conserving Massachusetts’ fish and wildlife and the habitats that sustain them.
To take part in this program, landowners must own at least 10 acres of woodlands in Massachusetts.
There will be three application ranking deadlines for consideration. Applications received by January 5, March 8, or May 10, 2024, will be ranked and considered for funding in fiscal year 2024.
Applications will be ranked according to criteria that includes the species to benefit, extent of habitat, and location as it relates to mapped habitat features as well as Environmental Justice communities.
More information about RCPP and more detailed eligibility requirements can be found from the NRCS RCPP website.
If you would like more information about how the RCPP could benefit a habitat project in your woodland, e-mail Patrick Conlin from MassWildlife, at Patrick.Conlin@mass.gov.