We will begin accepting applications for the new 2026 funding cycle July 1, 2025. Deadline for the 2025 application period closes September 30, 2025.

Prescribed burning is one of the most valuable practices available to manage native plant communities and thus the wildlife populations that inhabit fields and upland forests throughout much of the South. Through prescribed burning, fires are applied to the land in a deliberate and controlled manner to promote germination of beneficial forbs and grasses, reduce coverage of less desirable trees and shrubs, and decrease potential for destructive wildfires by reducing fuel loads. Although prescribed fire is a very important tool for forest and wildlife management, many private landowners are reluctant to use fire due to cost and liability concerns associated with burning.

The goal of the Fire on the Forty campaign is to promote the use of prescribed fire on privately owned fields and upland forests through outreach to educate landowners about the proper application of prescribed fire through hands-on workshops and by cost-sharing with private landowners to apply prescribed fire. The ultimate objective of the program is to increase fire-maintained habitat in targeted geographical areas (see focal counties map below). Targeting efforts in a biologically significant area helps develop favorable "habitat patches" in close proximity to one another so that less mobile wildlife, such as bobwhites and rabbits, can potentially travel between managed patches. Identifying focal areas also helps local biologists use resources more efficiently and increases the likelihood that neighboring landowners will become interested in prescribed burning. Finally, the program only has a finite amount of funding so targeting efforts helps get more "bang for our buck."

Cost-share Program

As part of the Fire on the Forty initiative, landowners may be reimbursed for funded projects in selected focal counties for up to 75% of costs for implementing and conducting prescribed fire up to a maximum per acre rate.  

Landowners must submit an application for entry into the program. Deadline for the 2025 application period closes September 30, 2025. All applications will be competitively ranked based on potential habitat benefits and will be selected for funding by the Mississippi Partners for Fish and Wildlife. Once the deadline for applications within a funding cycle has passed, landowners may submit an application, but it will be held by the Fire on the Forty Steering Committee until a new funding cycle begins. If you have a problem with the application process or for more specific questions, please email privatelands@wfp.ms.gov or john.gruchy@wfp.ms.gov  

Focal Counties

Map

Any landowner from any county in Mississippi can apply to Fire on the Forty. However, properties in focal counties will get additional points toward the project ranking. The ultimate objective of the program is to increase fire-maintained habitat in targeted geographical areas. Since the program only has a finite amount of funding, the geographic regions with the most "species of greatest concern" were targeted. These regions selected have historically fire-maintained upland ecosystems that have been reduced in range and include the Piney Woods of southeast Mississippi, the Black Belt Prairie of the northeast Mississippi, and the Loess Bluff of central Mississippi.

Focal counties include the following: Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Benton, Carroll, Chickasaw, Claiborne, Clay, Copiah, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Franklin, George, Greene, Grenada, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Kemper, Lamar, Lawrence, Lee, Lincoln, Lowndes, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pearl River, Perry, Pike, Prentiss, Stone, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Union, Walthall, Warren, Wayne, Wilkinson, Yalobusha, and Yazoo.

 

Apply for Fire on the Forty Cost-share
Up to 75% reimbursement for prescribed burning, or other practices to prep sites for fire.
Apply Here

Educational Program

The Fire on the Forty Steering Committee has worked closely with the MDWFP, Mississippi Prescribed Fire Council, Mississippi Forestry Commission, Mississippi State University Extension Service, and other partners to develop workshops to introduce landowners to prescribed fire.

More information about Fire on the Forty Workshops

The "Fire on the Forty" initiative was made possible through funding from multiple sources including the US Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation, and the Mississippi Forestry Commission. The program is administered by a committee of resource professionals from the MDWFP, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mississippi State University, Wildlife Mississippi, Mississippi Forestry Commission, National Wild Turkey Federation, and the Foundation for Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.

IN THE NEWS! An article about Fire on the Forty was recently published in The Wildlife Professional, a nationally syndicated magazine for natural resource professionals.