For Landowners

Rio Grande Joint Venture Habitat Restoration Incentive Programs

The Rio Grande Joint Venture works with our conservation partners to provide technical and financial assistance to landowners who want to enhance or restore grassland, riparian, and aquatic habitats on their lands. Grassland projects typically include controlling brush or other invasive plants, prescribed grazing or deferment, and/or planting desirable native plants. Stream projects to enhance or restore riparian and aquatic habitats often include planting native vegetation and sometimes creating structures to slow water down.

South Texas

In South Texas, Assistant Coordinator Jesús Franco leads the Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (GRIP), a multi-organization partnership aimed at conserving grassland birds in priority areas. The GRIP promotes land management practices that maintain or restore suitable grass-dominated habitat for wildlife by providing funding in the form of direct payment to landowners as an incentive for conducting approved grassland enhancement on their property.

Priority counties for grassland restoration efforts are Brooks, Duval, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, LaSalle, McMullen, Starr, Webb, Zapata, and roughly the western half of Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, and Willacy Counties. Landowners whose properties fall within these counties are encouraged to discuss their grazing and grassland-dependent wildlife habitat management objectives with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists who can then provide guidance about submitting a proposal to GRIP.

For more information, please see our GRIP fact sheet, or contact Jesús Franco at jfranco@abcbirds.org.

Far West Texas

In Far West Texas, RGJV carries out habitat restoration projects through the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Partnership (CDCP), which brings together resources and partners to collaboratively implement on-the- ground habitat restoration in the Chihuahuan Desert. 

Led byHabitat Restoration Hydrologist Jeff Bennett and Conservation Delivery Specialist Price Rumbelow, the CDCP  provides technical and financial assistance for enhancing or restoring grassland, riparian, and aquatic habitats. Funding support for this work comes from several program sources including Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Landowner Incentive Program, The Alamito Creek Conservation Initiative – a partnership between the Dixon Water Foundation, RGJV and the Borderlands Research Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program.

Eligible counties currently include Brewster, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Loving, Pecos, Presidio, Reeves, Upton, Val Verde, and Ward. Landowners in these counties who are interested in discussing potential projects are encouraged to call or email Jeff Bennett (jbennett@abcbirds.org) or Price Rumbelow (prumbelow@abcbirds.org)

See also, the Landowner Incentive Program Bulletin: Trans Pecos Special Edition to read about habitat restoration projects in Far West Texas.