Talk with your local TPWD biologist. They will know. We had one in Coleman and San Saba.
The biologist set up our plan & had no issues with county tax office.
As mentioned above, find your local TPWD biologist. They will come out and give you suggestions for free. Use those suggestions to fill out the forms with your local appraisal and it will be very difficult for them to deny it. Just make sure you are actually doing the tasks you say you will at the intensity level you are supposed to. Document your tasks, costs, including pictures. They will likely ask you to prove your efforts each year when you submit your report...
Typically you have a five year history in AG prior to switching to wildlife.
For smaller places less than 10-20ac (depends on county), bees can be used as AG, (again for 5 yrs) then you can switch to Wildlife.
Once you get to the Wildlife application process, THEN involve the TPWD biologist if that is the route you want to take. It is really pretty straight fwd (DIY) to meet the requirements, supplemental feed, water, shelter or habitat.
Thanks for the great answers All the Property has always been under ag exemption. But now we are adding another adjoining pasture that has even better habitat.
I will be doing the same thing for the wildlife with or without the wildlife exemption. Feeding, planting, selective harvest, water killing predators, etc. I do t have a problem with the paperwork. (Retired)
But someday I may not feel like hauling hay, working cattle or hauling that much water during deep freezes.
We are working on a Co-Op among our neighbors. Hopefully we can keep improving the quality and quantity of game
If you can get the neighbors on the same page, you will see great results. Our place in San Saba had some great deer, but everyone was on the same page & worked together. We went wildlife, because we bought our places to enjoy the wildlife, not necessarily for hunting. It got to where we didn't shoot much. We were just enjoying the places. Another plus was when it got dry or we had a drought we felt like the animals had safe places to nest , hide babies etc. Pastures around us would be ate down & we would be in good shape. Our plan still had some grazing in it, but we could decide when we wanted cows on there.
Olivia Kost is the TPWD biologist for Brown County that we’ve worked with. We are converting to wildlife exempt this year. She came out to property earlier in Feb and has been very helpful in doing the recommendations & paperwork. Eva Bush with Brown County Appraisal District is who we will talk to next (next week) in the process. Hopefully it goes smoothly.
Thank you very much for the advice and information
Stopped by the tax appraisal office and was told to visit the TPWD
So I have some homework to do.
Thanks
Big pig
Email Olivia and tell her what you are wanting to do and that you would like some assistance. She’ll send you the registration link to get started in the process.
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