Enrollment forms are available from any AGFC or Cooperative Extension Service office. Many AGFC wildlife officers are involved in the Acres for Wildlife program, and applications forms can often be obtained from them. Mail completed forms to Arkansas Acres for Wildlife, P.O. Box 391, Little Rock, AR 72203.

CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM (CRP)
Fully explaining the CRP would fill every page of this magazine. There's something to fit just about every landowner in this massive cost-share program. Established in 1985 under the Reagan administration, CRP is a multiyear set-aside program that, while designed mostly to remove highly erodable land from crop production, also provides significant benefits to deer and other wildlife. Approved practices are cost-shared by the federal government at a rate of 50 to 75 percent, depending on what's being done, usually on a ten-year renewable contract.

The program is often thought of as primarily relevant to the Western states, but it's also available to Arkansas landowners. Approved conservation practices available for cost-sharing in the Natural State include: establishment of permanent introduced grasses and legumes; tree planting; permanent wildlife habitat; field windbreak establishment; water diversions; erosion control structures; grass waterways; shallow-water areas for wildlife.

The Conservation Reserve Program is administered through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Contact your county or area NRCS office for more information and enrollment forms.

WILDLIFE HABITAT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (WHIP)
Also administered by the NRCS, WHIP is basically a refinement of the CRP incentives to increase the benefits to wildlife. As with approved CRP land treatments, approved WHIP activities are also cost-shared to the tune of 50 to 75 percent. Examples of approved land treatments under WHIP are prescribed burning, the creation of fire lanes, establishing food plots, certain forms of land clearing, establishing small watering holes, strip disking, fescue eradication and livestock exclusion fencing.

FOREST STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM
Administered by the USDA Forest Service, this program requires a minimum of 10 forested acres for enrollment. Participants will receive a written forest management plan co-authored by a forester and a wildlife biologist, based on four priorities ranked by the landowner -- timber, wildlife, recreation and "other". As with the AGFC programs listed earlier, this is a voluntary program, and there is no contract involved. The Forest Service provides technical assistance and advice. The landowner decides what to do with that information.

Contact the Forest Service office nearest you for more details: Ozark/St. Francis National Forest, 605 West Main, Russellville, AR 72801; (479) 968-2354. (District offices in Hector, Jasper, Ozark, Paris, Clarksville, Marianna and Mountain View.) Ouachita National Forest, P.O. Box 1270, Federal Building, Hot Springs, AR 71901; (501) 321-5202. (District offices in Glenwood, Booneville, Danville, Jessieville, Mena, Oden, Waldron, Perryville and Mt. Ida.)

It's obvious that there is no lack of management assistance programs for landowners and hunting clubs who want to improve the conditions on their land. We haven't even touched on the numerous provisions of the Farm Bill (also available through the NRCS). If you're interested in improving wildlife habitat and deer hunting on your land, all it takes to get started is a phone call.