Habitat and Prairie Information - Columbia County Pheasants Forever Chapter

Improving Your Wildlife Habitat May Be As Easy As Calling Our Farm Bill Biologist!

The Farm Bill Biologist program is designed to educate farmers and landowners about the benefits of conservation programs, as well as to assist those farmers and landowners after programs have been implemented. Pheasants Forever first began employing Farm Bill Biologists in 2003 and now has 35 Farm Bill Biologists working in seven states -- Minnesota, Missosuri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

"We've designed our Farm Bill Biologist program as the best possible resource for conservation information; one that is easy and user-friendly," said Jim Inglis, PF/QF Farm Bill Biologist Coordinator. "Our Farm Bill Biologists possess the necessary knowledge of federal, state and local conservation programs. More importantly, they are making local contacts and promoting programs on a personal basis -- over 150,000 hours have been spent with 21,000 individual landowner contact. That's the formula helping landowners find the right conservation programs to meet their personal habitat and land-use goals."

In Columbia and Marquette Counties, contact Eric Krueger who is the Farm Bill Biologist serving our area.

Primarily, the biologists work to accelerate enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and other Farm Bill conservation provisions that work with farm operations. Farm Bill Biologists add wildlife technical assistance in USDA offices to assist the Natural resources Conservation Services (NRCS) and other conservation partners with the increasing wildlife focus as part of the Farm Bill and various state programs. Funding sources for the Farm Bill Biologist program are diverse, from state wildlife departments and/or soil and water conservation districts, contribution agreements or contracts with the USDA's NRCS, local PF/QF chapters, watershed groups, foundations, and other state and local partners.


With the early success of the Farm Bill Biologist program in seven states, Pf/Qf envisions the program growing into success stories for additional states. "We are interested in adding more Farm Bill Biologist positions in new states and furthering our wildlife habitat mission," Inglis said.