(Radio Iowa) – As Iowans prepare their state tax returns, they’re reminded to remember the Fish and Wildlife Fund on Line 21 of Form 10-40, what’s also known as the Chickadee Check-off. Stephanie Shepherd, a wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Diversity Program, says the fund was created in the 1980s to help protect many hundreds of species of non-game wildlife. Shepherd says, “If you were someone who cared about bald eagles or songbirds, or frogs and toads, or bumblebees, all those other wildlife and enjoyed watching them and how they enrich your life, then you could make a donation towards those species and protecting them.”

Programs devoted to game animals, like deer, ducks and pheasants, are paid for through hunters’ license fees, but more than a thousand other species, from salamanders to monarchs, — which make up the majority of wildlife in Iowa — rely on this fund. Last year, only about 46-hundred Iowans checked the box to contribute to the fund on their state tax forms. That’s barely three-tenths of one-percent of Iowa taxpayers. “The number of donors has been dropping for several years, but the amount of money donated has stayed relatively the same,” Shepherd says. “In fact, from the 2023 tax year to 2024, the number of people donating dropped by about 800 people, but the amount donated went up by four- to $5,000.”

Funding helps to improve wildlife habitat, restore native wildlife, and provides opportunities for people to learn about Iowa’s natural resources and more. The number of donors to the long-standing check-off has dropped by more than half in the last 20 years, so Shepherd is working to raise awareness. “It would be nice also if more people knew about the check-off and how easy it was to make a donation,” Shepherd says. “It doesn’t have to be huge. It could be as low as a dollar to Wildlife Conservation in Iowa so that we could get the number of donors up as well.” Before the fund was created, non-game wildlife had no dedicated funding.

The Wildlife Diversity Program still receives no state income tax funds and is primarily supported by this voluntary donation program on the state tax form — and from the sale of Natural Resources license plates. Donations can also be made online at: https://programs.iowadnr.gov/donations