Partners for Fish and Wildlife Act
PL 109-294 (S.260), enacted 10/03/2006

120 STAT. 1351
PUBLIC LAW 109–294—OCT. 3, 2006
Public Law 109–294
109th Congress
An Act
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide technical and financial assist-
ance to private landowners to restore, enhance, and manage private land to
improve fish and wildlife habitats through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife
Program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Partners for Fish and Wildlife
Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
(1) approximately 60 percent of fish and wildlife in the
United States are on private land;
(2) it is imperative to facilitate private landowner-centered
and results-oriented efforts that promote efficient and innova-
tive ways to protect and enhance natural resources;
(3) there is no readily available source of technical biological
information that the public can access to assist with the applica-
tion of state-of-the-art techniques to restore, enhance, and man-
age fish and wildlife habitats;
(4) a voluntary cost-effective program that leverages public
and private funds to assist private landowners in the conduct
of state-of-the-art fish and wildlife habitat restoration, enhance-
ment, and management projects is needed;
(5) durable partnerships working collaboratively with
willing private landowners to implement on-the-ground projects
has lead to the reduction of endangered species listings;
(6) Executive Order No. 13352 (69 Fed. Reg. 52989) directs
the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and
Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency to pursue
new cooperative conservation programs involving the collabora-
tion of Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, private
for-profit and non-profit institutions, non-governmental entities,
and individuals;
(7) since 1987, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
has exemplified cooperative conservation as an innovative, vol-
untary partnership program that helps private landowners
restore wetland and other important fish and wildlife habitat;
and
(8) through 33,103 agreements with private landowners,
the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program has accomplished
the restoration of 677,000 acres of wetland, 1,253,700 acres
16 USC 3771.
16 USC 3771
note.
Partners for Fish
and Wildlife Act.
Oct. 3, 2006
[S. 260]
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120 STAT. 1352
PUBLIC LAW 109–294—0CT. 3, 2006
of prairie and native grasslands, and 5,560 miles of riparian
and in-stream habitat since 1987, demonstrating much of that
success since only 2001.
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to provide for the
restoration, enhancement, and management of fish and wildlife
habitats on private land through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife
Program, a program that works with private landowners to conduct
cost-effective habitat projects for the benefit of fish and wildlife
resources in the United States.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) FEDERAL TRUST SPECIES.—The term ‘‘Federal trust spe-
cies’’ means migratory birds, threatened species, endangered
species, interjurisdictional fish, marine mammals, and other
species of concern.
(2) HABITAT ENHANCEMENT.—
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘habitat enhancement’’
means the manipulation of the physical, chemical, or
biological characteristics of a habitat to change a specific
function or seral stage of the habitat.
(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat enhancement’’
includes—
(i) an activity conducted to increase or decrease
a specific function for the purpose of benefitting spe-
cies, including—
(I) increasing the hydroperiod and water depth
of a stream or wetland beyond what would natu-
rally occur;
(II) improving waterfowl habitat conditions;
(III) establishing water level management
capabilities for native plant communities;
(IV) creating mud flat conditions important
for shorebirds; and
(V) cross fencing or establishing a rotational
grazing system on native range to improve grass-
land nesting bird habitat conditions; and
(ii) an activity conducted to shift a native plant
community successional stage, including—
(I) burning an established native grass
community to reduce or eliminate invading brush
or exotic species;
(II) brush shearing to set back early succes-
sional plant communities; and
(III) forest management that promotes a par-
ticular seral stage.
(C) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat enhancement’’
does not include regularly scheduled and routine mainte-
nance and management activities, such as annual mowing
or spraying of unwanted vegetation.
(3) HABITAT ESTABLISHMENT.—The term ‘‘habitat establish-
ment’’ means the manipulation of physical, chemical, or
biological characteristics of a project site to create and maintain
habitat that did not previously exist on the project site,
including construction of—
(A) shallow water impoundments on non-hydric soils;
and
16 USC 3772.
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120 STAT. 1353
PUBLIC LAW 109–294—OCT. 3, 2006
(B) side channel spawning and rearing habitat.
(4) HABITAT IMPROVEMENT.—The term ‘‘habitat improve-
ment’’ 
means 
restoring, 
enhancing, 
or 
establishing
physiographic, hydrological, or disturbance conditions necessary
to establish or maintain native plant and animal communities,
including periodic manipulations to maintain intended habitat
conditions on completed project sites.
(5) HABITAT RESTORATION.—
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘habitat restoration’’
means the manipulation of the physical, chemical, or
biological characteristics of a site with the goal of returning
the majority of natural functions to the lost or degraded
native habitat.
(B) 
INCLUSIONS.—The 
term 
‘‘habitat 
restoration’’
includes—
(i) an activity conducted to return a project site,
to the maximum extent practicable, to the ecological
condition that existed prior to the loss or degradation,
including—
(I) removing tile drains or plugging drainage
ditches in former or degraded wetland;
(II) returning meanders and sustainable pro-
files to straightened streams;
(III) 
burning 
grass 
communities 
heavily
invaded by exotic species to reestablish native
grass and plant communities; and
(IV) planting plant communities that are
native to the project site;
(ii) if restoration of a project site to its original
ecological condition is not practicable, an activity that
repairs 1 or more of the original habitat functions
and that involve the use of native vegetation,
including—
(I) the installation of a water control structure
in a swale on land isolated from overbank flooding
by a major levee to simulate natural hydrological
processes; and
(II) the placement of streambank or instream
habitat diversity structures in streams that cannot
be restored to original conditions or profile; and
(iii) removal of a disturbing or degrading element
to enable the native habitat to reestablish or become
fully functional.
(6) PRIVATE LAND.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘private land’’ means any
land that is not owned by the Federal Government or
a State.
(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘private land’’ includes
tribal land and Hawaiian homeland.
(7) PROJECT.—The term ‘‘project’’ means a project carried
out under the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program estab-
lished by section 4.
(8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of the Interior.
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120 STAT. 1354
PUBLIC LAW 109–294—0CT. 3, 2006
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S. 260:
HOUSE REPORTS: No. 109–562 (Comm. on Resources).
SENATE REPORTS: No. 109–86 (Comm. on Environment and Public Works).
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD:
Vol. 151 (2005): June 27, considered and passed Senate.
Vol. 152 (2006): Sept. 20, considered and passed House.
SEC. 4. PARTNERS FOR FISH AND WILDLIFE PROGRAM.
The Secretary shall carry out the Partners for Fish and Wildlife
Program within the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to
provide—
(1) technical and financial assistance to private landowners
for the conduct of voluntary projects to benefit Federal trust
species by promoting habitat improvement, habitat restoration,
habitat enhancement, and habitat establishment; and
(2) technical assistance to other public and private entities
regarding fish and wildlife habitat restoration on private land.
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act
not more than $75,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2006 through
2011.
Approved October 3, 2006.
16 USC 3774.
16 USC 3773.
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