Two Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc., administers Project WINGS, a partnership program with electric and gas utilities, the Georgia Forestry Commission and the USDA NRCS. The program provides direct financial payments to private landowners to protect or enhance wildlife habitat in ROWs. Landowners may be eligible for annual payments of US$50 per 0.4 hectare (1 acre) up to 4 hectares (10 acres). Management activities may include planting or maintaining native or cultivated food resources for game and non-game species and mowing or disking vegetation to manage woody vegetation.

Landowners may enroll habitat for three years; after three years, lands may not enroll for three years, but are then eligible to re-enroll (3-in, 3-out). NRCS provides technical assistance, verifies land eligibility and reviews projects after management actions to approve payment. Two Rivers RC&D provides signs to landowners to identify enrolled properties. Pastureland is not eligible for enrollment (Two Rivers RCD 2016; Gross 2016; Harris 2016).

• Two Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc. 2016. WINGS. Consulted online 2 March 2016 at: tworiversrcd.org/index.php/redshop/wings.
• Tina Gross. 2016. Two Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc. Personal communication.
• Sylvia Harris. 2016. US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Conservationist. Personal communication.

Amount of the Incentive
US$50 per 0,4 hectares (1 acre) per year. Up to 4 hectares (10 acres) may be enrolled each year for 3 years, totaling US$1,500 in annual payments

Keywords: direct financial payment, management, technical assistance