Pay To Play: TPWD Institutes Fee For Managed Lands Deer Programs

Published 10:00 pm Saturday, May 15, 2021

Measured by any means, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Managed Lands Deer Permit program has been a success since its inception in 1996.

The goal of the program was simply to give landowners and hunters wanting to intensively manage their deer herd as much leeway as possible in the form of extended season dates and liberal harvest regulations. To qualify, participants had to put in the extra effort with spotlight counts, management practices and efforts to complete what can be challenging harvest recommendations.

In 1998 there were 813 tracts of land enrolled in MLDP covering about 3.1 million acres. Last year there were 6,513 properties covering almost 29 million acres, or about 17 percent of Texas enrolled in the program. Some of those properties had multiple units, so in all TPWD made harvest recommendations on more than 12,000 sites.

And therein lies the one problem with the program, it is costly in manhours and dollars. Even with some preparation load having been shifted to landowners and computers, in 2020 TPWD used almost 37,000 man-hours at a cost to the department of $1.4 million assisting landowners and hunters in preparation for applying to the program and poring over information received to determine harvest recommendations.

To offset the program cost, the department is finally attaching an annual fee to the MLDP program beginning this season.

“TPWD is currently projecting $1.3 to $1.6 million in revenue from MLDP fees,” explained John Silovsky, TPWD Wildlife Division director. “Revenue will be allocated to a dedicated account specifically for use by the Wildlife Division and solely for the MLD Program. The bulk of that funding will be utilized to hire additional field staff to increase our capacity to meet the needs of the MLDP and technical guidance across the state.”

The popularity of the program has led to biologists not always making timely onsite inspections of new properties as well as delays in issuance of permits once a harvest quota has been developed. If the department is able to hire biologists specifically for the program, it should also free up staff to help not only with the MLD program but all wildlife management efforts in the state.

The cost of the fee is low enough it is not going to prevent anyone from participating. For a property operating under the Harvest Option plan, it starts at just $30. If a ranch is divided into multiple leases, the fee is $30 per unit. The cost under this option for a ranch divided into five leases would be $150.

Wildlife cooperatives will be charged a $30 base fee, plus $30 per participating property. That would bring the cost to $300 for a cooperative with 10 members.

For a property under the more liberal Conservation Option, the fee is $300. An additional $30 fee is charged per lease if the property is divided into multiple leases under a single management plan. The cost for a high-fenced ranch split into two leases under one plan would be $330. However, if a ranch is divided into multiple leases and they each operate separately under their own management plan, the cost is $300 per lease.

“The fee structure was developed by staff in conjunction with various advisory committees and stakeholder groups. Public comment was solicited through our public comment opportunities as part of routine commission meetings,” Silovsky said.

As is the case with any new fee or fee increase, the department expects some to drop out of the program.

“We do expect some attrition initially due to the fee implementation, but because of the overwhelming popularity of the program that includes an extended season, early buck harvest and property specific bag limits, we expect the program to continue to grow in the future,” Silovsky added.

Texas is one of several states across the South with a deer management program, and joins Georgia and Louisiana in collecting a fee for participation.

Enrollment for the 2021-22 MLDP season is open. For more information on the program, go online to https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/apps/.