Landowners Need License To Conduct Hunts

Many landowners are surprised each year when informed they need a license to lease their property for hunting.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department would like to remind landowners that a hunting lease license is required for certain hunting operations. The owner of a hunting lease or the landowner’s agent may not receive pay or anything of value from hunters unless the owner or agent has acquired a hunting lease license from the department. This law applies to all hunting leases.

There are three types of lease licenses: (1) hunting lease license; (2) hunting cooperative; and (3) wildlife management association. The license is required to be displayed on the hunting lease property.

The fees for the first type, the hunting lease license, are as follows. This license is for the total amount of property in a county owned by an individual, partnership, firm, or corporation.

• less than 500 acres—$75
• between 500- 1,000 acres—$140
• 1,000 acres or more—$240.

The second type of license listed above, the hunting cooperative lease license, means a cooperative enterprise in which participating landowners pool their acreage and lease it for hunting purposes under the authority of a hunting lease license and in which the leasing profits are distributed to the landowners, according to the landowners’ participation.

The fees for that license are as follows:

• Less than 10,000 acres — $60 + $5 per participating landowner
• Between 10,000-50,000 acres— $120 + $5 per participating landowner
• More than 50,000 acres— $240 + $5 per participating landowner.

And the third type listed above is the wildlife management association area hunting lease license. The department may designate two or contiguous or proximate (a tract of land within one-half mile of another member tract) tracts of land as a wildlife management association area if:

1.       each owner of the land applies for the designation;

2.       the land is inhabited by wildlife;

3.       the department determines that observing wildlife and collecting information about the wildlife will serve the purpose of wildlife management in the state; and

4.       the landowners agree to provide the department with information regarding the wildlife under Section 81.302 of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code.

The fees for licensing of this type of area are as follows:

• Less than 10,000 acres—$36 plus $5 per participating landowner;
• Between 10,000 and 50,000 acres—$72 plus $5 per participating landowner;
• More than 50,000 acres—$144 plus $5 per participating landowner.

A hunting lease license is valid for the period from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31.

“A person who violates any provision of the hunting lease license requirements or who fails to comply with any provision of the hunting lease license requirements commits an offense that is a Class C Parks and Wildlife Code misdemeanor, which carries a fine of between $25-$500,” said David Sinclair, chief of Wildlife Enforcement at TPWD. For more information, call Eddie Hines, Fannin County Game Warden at 903-583-0708.