With an initial investment of only $3,000, the Society entered into renewable one-year agreements with landowners whose property contained bogs occupied by bog turtles. All the agreements require participating landowners to protect their bogs by not draining them or undertaking various other activities that might harm the turtles. In other aspects the agreements vary: Some require landowners to keep their cattle out of nesting areas during certain seasons, and others require restoration or maintenance activities, including cutting down highly invasive red maple trees which discourage turtle occupancy.

By early 2000, about a dozen landowners had joined the program, entering into agreements covering about one hundred acres of land. Annual payments to landowners have been quite small, averaging just over $20 per acre per year. Despite the modest sums, all the participating landowners have renewed their agreements. The Herpetological Society expects to expand the program in the near future.

An added benefit of the bog turtle program is that it encourages protection of several rare plants that live in the same habitat, including the mountain sweet pitcher plant (Sarracenia rubra ssp. jonesii), bunched arrowhead (Sagittaria fasciculata), and swamp pink (Hellonias bullata). (Since the Endangered Species Act does not require private landowners to protect the habitat of endangered plants, this assistance is particularly welcome news.) This small but successful program is demonstrating that even modest sums can help secure landowner cooperation for protecting rare species and unique habitats.