Illustrated Texas landscape of grassland, rocky ridges and oak woodland.

Ten ecoregions, ten different plans.

The same statute governs wildlife management valuation everywhere in Texas - but a plan is judged against the standards for your ecoregion. Cedar clearing that carries a Hill Country plan means nothing on the Llano Estacado, and playa restoration means nothing in the Pineywoods.

Find your ground

Which one is your land?

Each region page carries its species, its habitat problems, a worked example of all seven qualifying practices, the acreage bands its counties fall under, and every county in it.

Illustrated Edwards Plateau limestone creek, Ashe juniper and Golden-cheeked warbler.

Edwards Plateau

30 counties Limestone hills, live oak savannah, and spring-fed creeks - the heart of Texas wildlife management. white-tailed deer and Rio Grande turkey Practices & counties Illustrated Cross Timbers post oak woodland and native prairie with a wild turkey.

Cross Timbers & Prairies

23 counties Oak woodlands and prairie openings west of the Metroplex - classic ranchette wildlife country. white-tailed deer and Rio Grande turkey Practices & counties Illustrated Post Oak Savannah with open grassland, scattered oaks and a doe with her fawn.

Post Oak Savannah

26 counties Rolling post oak woodlands and native prairie remnants between the Blacklands and the Pineywoods. white-tailed deer and bobwhite quail Practices & counties Illustrated Blackland Prairies with dark soil, tall native grasses, wildflowers and monarch butterflies.

Blackland Prairies

17 counties Deep black clay soils and tallgrass prairie remnants in the fastest-growing corridor in Texas. grassland songbirds and white-tailed deer Practices & counties Illustrated East Texas Pineywoods with tall pines, a shaded slough and white-tailed deer.

Pineywoods

30 counties Pine-hardwood forest, bottomland sloughs, and timber country transitioning to wildlife. white-tailed deer and eastern wild turkey Practices & counties Illustrated Gulf Prairies and Marshes with a flat coastal horizon, tidal channels, marsh grass and a heron.

Gulf Prairies & Marshes

18 counties Coastal prairie, rice country, and marsh - a flyway funnel for waterfowl and shorebirds. waterfowl and coastal prairie birds Practices & counties Illustrated South Texas Plains with thornscrub, mesquite, prickly pear and a white-tailed buck.

South Texas Plains

23 counties The famed South Texas brush country - trophy whitetails, bobwhites, and thornscrub habitat. white-tailed deer and bobwhite quail Practices & counties Illustrated Rolling Plains red-earth rangeland, mesquite, distant Caprock and bobwhite quail.

Rolling Plains

36 counties Red dirt, mesquite rangeland, and some of the best bobwhite quail country left in America. bobwhite quail and white-tailed deer Practices & counties Illustrated High Plains flat shortgrass prairie and seasonal playa with a pronghorn.

High Plains

36 counties Shortgrass prairie, playa lakes, and mule deer country on the Llano Estacado. mule deer and playa waterfowl Practices & counties Illustrated Trans-Pecos desert mountains, sparse Chihuahuan vegetation and a desert bighorn sheep.

Trans-Pecos

15 counties Desert mountains and Chihuahuan grasslands - mule deer, pronghorn, and desert bighorn country. mule deer and pronghorn Practices & counties

Two maps, and only one of them sets your acreage

This is the single most confusing thing about Texas wildlife valuation, so it is worth stating plainly. There are two regional maps in play and they are not the same map:

  • The ten ecoregions on this page - the classic Gould/TPWD regions. They decide content: which species your plan should target, which practices count as real management, and the intensity standards a chief appraiser measures your work against.
  • The twelve wildlife appraisal regions of 34 TAC §9.2002 - a legal map. They decide exactly one thing: the acreage band your county may adopt a minimum from, and only for a tract that was reduced in size since January 1 of the preceding year.

Every one of the ten ecoregions spans between two and five of the twelve legal regions, and most span more than one acreage band - so two counties that share an ecoregion, and share every word of their practice standards, can carry different minimums. Each region page below shows exactly how its counties split, and the county-by-county acreage table has the adopted figure for every district that has published one.

Texas has 10 ecoregions for habitat, species and practices, and 12 wildlife appraisal regions for reduced-tract acreage bands. Gillespie and Sutton counties share the Edwards Plateau ecoregion, but their legal regions allow bands of 14.3–20 acres and 25–50 acres respectively. These are statutory bands, not county-adopted minimums.
The ten ecoregions and twelve wildlife appraisal regions serve different purposes. A county’s statutory band is not the same as its adopted minimum.

Download PNGSources: TPWD ecoregions · TPWD appraisal regions · Acreage bands

Rio Grande wild turkey and northern bobwhite quail among native Texas grasses and limestone

Your region. Your practices. Your year, organized.

Bring your existing wildlife records. Turn the work that fits your ground into a checklist, a paper trail, and your next annual report.

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