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JEFFERSON CITY -- The Missouri Department of Conservation has expanded Landowners Assisting Wildlife Survival (LAWS), making it a two-year program to better meet the needs of landowners as well as wildlife.
The Conservation Department created LAWS in 1994 to give landowners a financial incentive to provide winter food and cover for upland wildlife. Under the program, landowners receive cash payments for leaving strips of row crops unharvested in the field adjacent to permanent wildlife cover.
In the past, LAWS was an annual program. To increase wildlife benefits, the Conservation Department has expanded the contract period to two years. Landowners leave at least 10 feet of row crops adjacent to brushy cover. Enrolled land must remain undisturbed for two years.
"We expanded LAWS into a two-year program because benefits for wildlife are best during the second year when the ground is left undisturbed," says Conservation Department Private Land Services Chief Charley Maupin. "Idle strips with a mixture of bare ground and annual plants provide excellent conditions for rearing young. The early successional vegetation also attracts many insects, which are the primary food for quail and other upland birds, and there is no cost to the landowner during the second year of the program."
Maupin said unharvested grain provides high energy food that improves the ability of upland wildlife to survive cold weather. Standing stalks and other vegetation also provide cover that help protect wildlife from predators and severe weather conditions. Having the same habitat available during the summer is critical to the reproductive success of quail, rabbits and other wildlife.
In exchange for not harvesting crops, landowners receive payments of $150 per year for each acre of corn, milo, sorghum, soybeans and sunflowers left in the field. Payments of $75 a year are provided for each acre of small grain left unharvested. Payments for both years of the contract are made in May of the year following approval of the contract. The Conservation Department also makes annual lespedeza seed available at no charge for overseeding fallow strips, to provide additional wildlife food during the second year of the contract.
Landowners who want to enroll land in the LAWS program should contact the nearest private land conservationist, county conservation agent or other Conservation Department representative.
Uploaded: 12/30/2000
Uploaded: 12/30/2000