Pollinator Habitat Plan
A wildlife plan built around native pollinators.
If your land already carries an ag valuation and you'd rather manage it for wildlife than run cattle or cut hay, a wildlife management plan can carry the valuation instead. I write plans built around native pollinators.
Or call or text (512) 298-1526. Text is fastest.
What you get
A pollinator-focused wildlife management plan for your property:
- The state's plan form, completed for your place: Texas Parks and Wildlife form PWD 885-W7000, with the preparer section signed by me.
- A narrative written for your land, with maps of its habitat conditions and the native pollinators you'll manage for.
- At least three qualifying management practices, chosen to fit your ground.
- An annual activity schedule and recordkeeping instructions, so your yearly report is straightforward.
The package is ready for you to submit with your appraisal district application. Where a program fits, I'll also point you to USDA NRCS cost-share for the plantings.
Who it's for
Land that already carries an agricultural valuation. Wildlife management is a change in how qualified land is used. It can't qualify land that has never been in ag use.
Your appraisal district also sets a minimum size for wildlife use, and it differs by county. If your place is five to twenty acres, a bee yard may be the simpler route.
Wildlife valuation, explained
It isn't a new exemption. Texas counts wildlife management as an agricultural use, so it works inside the 1-d-1 valuation your land already carries (Tax Code ยง23.51). The land has to qualify for agricultural appraisal first (Texas Comptroller).
You file a wildlife management plan with your appraisal district on Texas Parks and Wildlife form PWD 885-W7000. Each year the land has to be worked with at least three of seven practices: habitat control, erosion control, predator control, supplemental water, supplemental food, shelters and census counts. Many districts also ask for an annual report on form PWD 888-W7000.
Native pollinators can be the center of the plan. Texas Parks and Wildlife's Nongame and Rare Species Program publishes pollinator management recommendations for landowners writing a plan for wildlife valuation (TPWD).
What my pollinator plans look like
- Habitat control
- Brush work that opens ground for wildflowers without clearing every brush line, native seeding, and mowing after seed set instead of before it.
- Supplemental water
- Shallow water with a landing edge, kept full through July and August.
- Supplemental food
- Blooms sequenced across all three seasons to mitigate the typical Texas dearth months. On Central Texas ground that can mean agarita and Mexican plum from February, Texas bluebonnet and Engelmann's daisy in spring, Indian blanket, Mexican hat and mealy blue sage through summer, and Leavenworth's eryngo, Maximilian sunflower, tall goldenrod and frostweed from August into fall (Wildflower Center plant database).
- Shelters
- Bare, sunny ground left alone for ground-nesting bees, about seventy percent of native bee species in the United States (Xerces Society). Standing stems, snags and nest blocks for the rest.
- Census counts
- Bloom counts and pollinator counts along the same route each season, and photopoints.
Native seeding is slow. I plan in years, not months. Don't expect idyllic Texas countryside before three years.
How it works
- Request a site visit. It's free, and you'll get a native plant guide written for your address.
- I walk the place with you. Forage, water, cover and soils, and what you'd like the land to look like in ten years.
- I write the plan and draw the maps. You'll review a draft before it's final.
- You file it with your appraisal district. It goes in with the district's application, by the district's deadline.
- Each year, you keep the records the plan lays out. If you'd like me to prepare the annual report, it'll be in your quote.
A habitat plan and a bee yard
On a place with a qualifying piece of five to twenty acres, a bee yard can run alongside the wildlife plan as its own agricultural use, depending on how your district treats the two. Bees won't cover two hundred acres, but a wildlife plan can, so you may not have to pick one or the other.
What the plan doesn't include
The plan doesn't include doing the management work, ongoing monitoring, or a promise that your appraisal district will approve it. Your district decides. I'm not a tax advisor, and I don't file.
I don't apply herbicide for hire, and I don't serve as burn boss. When a plan calls for either, I write the prescription and you or a licensed contractor does the work. I'll work the fire line if invited.
Why me
I hold a B.S. in Rangeland Ecology and Management from Texas A&M, and I've kept bees on Central Texas forage since 2005. I know which plants carry bees through a Texas summer dearth, because my bees taught me.
Questions people ask me
- Is this a new exemption?
- No. Texas counts wildlife management as an agricultural use, so it works inside the 1-d-1 valuation your land already has. The land has to qualify for agricultural appraisal first.
- Who files the plan?
- You do. I write it and sign the preparer section, and your appraisal district decides whether it qualifies.
- Can honey bees count toward wildlife management?
- No. The plan is built around native wildlife, and native pollinators can be the focus. A bee yard, where it fits, is a separate agricultural use on its own five to twenty acres.
- Do you do the prescribed burns or spray the brush?
- No. I write the prescription. You or a licensed applicator apply any herbicide, and someone else serves as burn boss on any fire. I'll work the line if invited.
Other ways I can help
- Part of your place between five and twenty acres? A bee yard can carry an ag valuation there. See Managed Bee Yards
- Want to keep bees yourself? I'll set you up and mentor you for two years. See the Starter Apiary
Let's look at the land together.
A plan starts with a visit and a look at what's already growing.
The visit is free. If your place isn't a fit, I'll tell you why and what might work instead, and you'll still get a native plant guide written for your address.