PLOTS Guide - Private Land Initiative Details

(Last updated August 2024)

The Private Land Initiative is the Game and Fish Department’s overall program for working with private landowners. The PLI has three main goals:

• Conserve habitat for fish and wildlife populations.
• Provide landowners interested in wildlife conservation with cost-sharing assistance for developing and protecting wildlife habitat.
• Provide public opportunities to access fish and wildlife resources on private land.

The PLI gives producers/landowners several options for working with Game and Fish through the Private Land Open To Sportsmen program:

• CRP Access Program – Provides assistance with establishment and management costs associated with Conservation Reserve Program grasslands and includes public access.
• Working Lands Program – Shortterm program based on the wildlife value of actively farmed or ranched land, which also includes public access. Biologists evaluate current farming or ranching management based on conservation practices, good stewardship and quality of hunting habitat. This program also includes public access.
• Habitat Plot Program – Multi-year rental program with agreements that help create, enhance or protect wildlife habitat, and include public access.
• Food Plot Program – Short-term program that provides a wildlife food source and public access.
• Private Forest Conservation Program – Multi-year rental program that provides protection and enhancement of unique forested systems, and includes public access.
• Wetlands Reserve Program – A partnership program between the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Game and Fish, providing incentives to producers who enroll land in WRP. The primary purpose is to restore, protect or enhance wetlands and associated uplands, as well as provide public access.
• Tree Planting Cost-Sharing Program – Provides assistance with establishment costs of tree plantings. The goal is to enhance wildlife habitat and conservation on private land and provide public access.

Game and Fish also works with other state and federal agencies, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, North Dakota Natural Resources Trust, Mule Deer Foundation, Pheasants for the Future, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation and other local wildlife clubs to carry out wildlife habitat projects on some PLOTS tracts.