A number of types of financial assistance are available to private landowners wishing to restore or create wildlife habitat, control erosion and protect water quality. Government agencies offer cost-share programs, rental payments and easement programs for bottomland hardwoods and wetlands, longleaf pine forests and native prairie habitat. They include:

• The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, administered the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
• The Forest Resource Development Program, administered by the Mississippi Forestry Commission.
• The Conservation Reserve Program, administered by the Farm Service Agency.
• The Wetlands Reserve Program, administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
• Emergency Forest Restoration Program, administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
• Healthy Forests Restoration Program, administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
• Conservation Easements, administered by the Mississippi Land Trust and the Mississippi River Trust, sister organizations of Wildlife Mississippi.

These programs are described in a newly established website called the Conservation Finance Center. Wildlife Mississippi, the Mississippi Land Trust, the Mississippi River Trust and Yale University have partnered with the Walton Family Foundation to develop this website to assist private landowners in making conservation decisions based on sound economics.

Using the website, a landowner can make a comparative financial analysis of land uses to visualize the economic results of undergoing certain conservation practices such as restoring or protecting a forest, establishing vegetative cover on highly-erodible land or donating an easement to restrict certain land uses. The heart of the website is an online Decision Support Tool. Landowners enter property and financial information and can visualize the economic results of placing a conservation easement on their property through various incentive and easement programs including Wetlands Reserve Easements and the Conservation Reserve Program.

The Decision Support Tool also allows landowners to determine the results of donating a conservation easement to a land trust or conservation organization. The Conservation Finance Center website offers detailed descriptions of incentive and easement programs and how they can benefit bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands, longleaf pine forests and native prairies in Mississippi. Wildlife Mississippi plans to expand the Decision Support Tool to apply to upland habitats, such as native prairies and pine forests, and to adapt the tool for use in other Lower Mississippi River states.