An application for 1-d-1 agriculture use valuation and wildlife management plan must be submitted to the appraisal district for wildlife exemption in Gregg County. Submit documents for wildlife use appraisal no later than April 30 of the application year. Each application must include supportive documentation proving that the land has been and will continue to be actively devoted principally to wildlife management use.
If supportive information (detailed wildlife management plan) is not provided the application will be returned as an incomplete application. Some important details concerning the wildlife exemption in Gregg County that landowners should know:
- Minimum of 12.5 acres for rural acres and 10 acres for subdivisions (WMPA’s), if the property has been reduced in size during the prior tax year.
- The land must have had either Agricultural use, Timer Use or Wildlife Management applied to the property the previous year for the land to qualify.
- The property must be actively devoted to the “propagation of sustained breeding,
migrating or wintering population of indigenous wild animals. - The primary use of the land must be wildlife management, if the primary use is anything other, the land does not qualify per state law.
- The Property Owner must be actively using land that at the time the wildlife management began or was appraised as qualified open-space land in at least three of the following seven ways to propagate a sustaining breeding, migrating, or wintering population of indigenous wild animals for human use, including food, medicine, or recreation.
- Management practices include – (a) Habitat Control (b) Erosion Control (c) Predator Control (d) Providing supplemental supplies of water (e) Providing supplemental supplies of food (f) Providing shelter (g) Making census counts to determine population.
- Each management practice must meet the degrees of intensity set forth by the the State of Texas for the Pineywoods ecological region.
- The application period deadline is April 30, annually
The required documents for the consideration of Wildlife Management are:
- Application for 1-d-1 (Open Space) Agricultural Use Appraisal
- Wildlife Management Plan
- For reference, the Gregg County Appraisal District does require the completion of a Wildlife Management Annual Report in subsequent years.
We assist landowners with the preparation of wildlife management plans that can be filed with the Gregg County County Appraisal District. These plans meet or exceed the guidelines for maintaining an ag tax valuation using wildlife use appraisal. If you are interested in a wildlife exemption in Gregg County, please consider contacting us to assist. We are familiar with the Pineywoods and have considerable experience with management plan preparation for wildlife tax valuation.