Working with Private Landowners

Landowner Assistance Program

As a private landowner -- farmer, rancher, forester, businessperson, hunter or conservationist - you know more about your Florida land than anyone else. You know the wild animals and plants keeping your land healthy and brimming with life. Your land may have been passed down through generations of your family. Or perhaps you are beginning the tradition of letting your children and grandchildren inherit your land and all its natural beauty and value. More than half of Florida’s land area is held in private ownership. The FWC recognizes the critical role that private lands play in providing sustainable wildlife populations and wildlife habitat.

The Landowner Assistance Program, housed within the FWC's Office of Conservation Planning Services, is a cooperative, voluntary effort among Florida private landowners, the FWC and other partners to improve habitat conditions for fish and wildlife. Biologists with the Landowner Assistance Program can help you as a private landowner manage your land to benefit wildlife as described in the guide to private lands partnerships to help conserve Florida wildlife.

Your land stewardship is beneficial not only to you but to your neighbors, community and state. What you decide to do as a land steward can be tremendously beneficial to the survival of our wild Florida, so intertwined in our lives and economy.

Who is eligible?

The Landowner Assistance Program can provide technical assistance and conservation plan preparation at no cost for private landowners, as well as recognition and education to those participating in our programs. There are no acreage limitations to receive habitat management guidance.