The Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Connecticut office has announced it is participating in a new, nationwide partnership with farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to use innovative approaches to restore and protect wildlife habitats, including habitats for seven at-risk species and other vulnerable game species.

The $33 million Working Lands for Wildlife program enables federal, state, and local wildlife experts to jointly identify at-risk species that would benefit from targeted habitat restoration investments on private lands. Partners will prioritize restoration actions on a large regional scale to most cost effectively focus assistance. In return for voluntarily making habitat improvements on their lands, the federal government will provide landowners with regulatory certainty that they will not be asked to take additional conservation actions.

In Connecticut, targeted species will include the New England cottontail and the bog turtle. Applications from landowners are due April 30.

For information, call the USDA field office in Norwich at (860) 887-3604.