Northwest Oklahoma Ecosystem Crediting Opportunities (ECO-Bundle) Program

This project aims to create Oklahomas first marketable wildlife credit and the framework for application of future wildlife credits to other species and regions of the state. OACD will collaborate with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, and NRCS to develop the concept of a wildlife credit as it applies to the Lesser Prairie Chicken (“LEPC”) Habitat within the project area. This will entail creating protocols for defining, quantifying, and qualifying the credit, developing a credit verification system, and measuring the project’s effect on Oklahoma’s LEPC Habitat and population. A successful crediting system will accurately account for the cost to landowners in implementing the required practices and the income sacrificed by forgoing the possibility of wind development. Through this process OACD and its partners will develop a Wildlife Credit Handbook. This tool will ensure that interested parties outside of OACD will also be capable of transferring the work resulting from this CIG to other regions of the state or the nation.