Texas Wildlife Exemption Calculator

How the estimate works

Texas lets a landowner keep an open-space (1-d-1) valuation while managing for native wildlife instead of livestock or crops. To qualify, the property must already hold an agricultural or timber valuation, and you must perform at least three of the seven qualifying wildlife management activities.

The calculator sizes each activity to your acreage using the density benchmarks biologists commonly apply in the Hill Country - roughly one nest box per 10 to 20 acres, one dependable water source per 200 to 300 acres, and one feeder per 100 to 300 acres. The savings figure compares a typical market valuation against an open-space valuation at the same acreage.

Treat the output as a planning estimate, not a filing. Intensity standards vary by ecoregion and county, and your Central Appraisal District makes the final determination.

The seven qualifying activities

You must document at least three of these:

• Habitat Control - brush management, native seeding, prescribed burning.
• Erosion Control - gully shaping, terracing, streamside restoration.
• Predator Control - including feral hog removal.
• Supplemental Water - guzzlers and drinker stations.
• Supplemental Food - protein feeders and food plots.
• Providing Shelters - nest boxes, bat houses, brush piles.
• Making Census Counts - spotlight surveys, point counts, camera stations.

Most landowners find shelter, water and census counts the cheapest and most defensible combination, because the equipment is inexpensive, the results are visible on an inspection, and monitoring the boxes generates the census data at the same time.

Filing deadlines and forms

First-time applications are filed between 1 January and 30 April of the year you want the valuation to begin. You submit the 1-d-1 Open Space Application (Form 50-129) together with a wildlife management plan on PWD 885-W7000, which requires a property map showing boundaries, habitat types and the location of each management practice.

Plans, filings and appraisal district representation are handled by our sister company, Plateau Land & Wildlife Management. Plateau Products supplies and installs the equipment those plans call for.