The Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative’s Incentives Program application is open! 

Open to 16 counties, VGBI’s financial incentives program pays farmers $35 per acre for delayed haying and/or summer pasture stockpiling during the grassland bird nesting season. 

Both practices balance grassland bird conservation and long-term production goals by allowing ample time for nesting grassland birds to successfully fledge their young before farmers cut hay or rotate cattle into select fields.

Since 2021, 46 farmers have formally enrolled 3,000 acres of land into our financial incentives program, and 28 have implemented delayed haying or summer pasture stockpiling on another 3,000 acres voluntarily, without the financial incentives. 

This year, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have provided funding to support enrolling new properties in the program!

Apply by November 15 at vagrasslandbirds.org/incentives

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VGBI is a collaborative effort of PEC, Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes, Quail Forever and American Farmland Trust working together with landowners and farmers to restore grassland habitat for the benefit of birds and farms across the Virginia Piedmont, Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley