Texas ecoregion · 15 counties

Trans-Pecos wildlife management

Desert mountains and Chihuahuan grasslands — mule deer, pronghorn, and desert bighorn country.

Counties
15 of 254
Flagship species
Mule deer and pronghorn
Appraisal regions
2 · 25–100 ac
Districts publishing a figure
1 of 15

The Trans-Pecos on the ground

The Trans-Pecos is Texas at its biggest: Chihuahuan Desert basins, sky-island mountain ranges, and desert grasslands running to the Rio Grande. Properties are measured in sections, water is the limiting factor for nearly all wildlife, and management plans here revolve around water development, desert grassland recovery, and pronghorn and mule deer habitat.

Desert mule deer are the marquee species across the Trans-Pecos, with pronghorn on the grassland flats; a single well-placed water development can anchor an entire year’s practice log in this country. Typical target species for plans in this region include mule deer, pronghorn, desert bighorn sheep, scaled quail, Gambel’s quail, and golden eagles.

What limits wildlife here

A wildlife management plan is most convincing when it takes on the problems that actually constrain wildlife in its region rather than listing generic good deeds. In the Trans-Pecos, those are creosote and tarbush invasion of desert grasslands, scarce and declining surface water, and fence barriers to pronghorn movement — and each one is a practice waiting to be written down. A plan that names a real local problem, commits to work at regional intensity, and documents it is the plan that gets approved and stays approved.

Start with three

You need at least three of the seven qualifying practices each year under Texas Tax Code §23.51(7). For most Trans-Pecos landowners the natural opening three are habitat control, supplemental water and census counts: habitat control is where the real management happens, water is the quickest to install and the easiest to photograph, and a census generates dated evidence every single year. You can change which three you run as the land changes — the statute asks for three practices performed and documented, not three particular practices forever.

The seven practices, Trans-Pecos-style

Every Texas plan draws from the same seven practices. What changes by region is what each one looks like — and a plan that describes the wrong version for its ecoregion is the fastest way to draw questions from a chief appraiser. Here is what each practice means in the Trans-Pecos:

1

Habitat control

Grubbing creosote to release desert grasses, re-seeding with black grama and sideoats, and modifying net-wire fences with goat bars for pronghorn passage.

2

Erosion control

Rock check-dams and one-rock dams in arroyos, media lunas on sheet-flow slopes, and re-vegetating roads and pads.

3

Predator control

Mountain lion monitoring and targeted control where deer herds are suppressed, and coyote management during pronghorn fawning.

4

Supplemental water

Building and maintaining wildlife guzzlers, converting windmills to solar with storage and wildlife access, and protecting desert springs and tinajas.

5

Supplemental food

Deferred grazing to grow native forage, protecting mast-producing oaks and mesquites in draws, and limited supplemental feeding during extreme drought.

6

Providing shelter

Retaining brushy draws and escape terrain, leaving cholla and yucca stands for quail and nesting, and protecting cliff and cave roosts.

7

Census counts

Mule deer daylight counts on standardized routes, quail call counts at water, pronghorn ground counts, and remote camera monitoring at guzzlers.

The acreage rule across the Trans-Pecos

The ecoregion decides your species and practices. It does not decide your acreage — that comes from a second, legal map: the twelve wildlife appraisal regions of 34 TAC §9.2002. The 15 counties of the Trans-Pecos fall into 2 of them, carrying more than one acreage band, so two counties that share every word of their practice standards can carry different minimums:

TPWD wildlife appraisal regionAcreage bandTrans-Pecos counties
Trans Pecos 33.3–100 acres 97–99% 13 — Brewster, Crane, Culberson, El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and 7 more
High Plains 25–50 acres 96–98% 2 — Ector, Upton

None of it applies unless the tract was reduced in size since January 1 of the preceding year. If it was, the minimum is 25–100 acres depending on the county, and 1 of the 15 districts here have published the exact figure they adopted. See the county-by-county table →

Every Trans-Pecos county

15 counties, each with its appraisal district, filing calendar, and local acreage answer:

BrewsterCraneCulbersonEctorEl PasoHudspethJeff DavisLovingPecosPresidioReevesTerrellUptonWardWinkler

Trans-Pecos questions

Trans-Pecos wildlife management FAQ

What are the wildlife management intensity standards for the Trans-Pecos?
TPWD publishes Comprehensive Wildlife Management Planning Guidelines for each ecoregion, and your appraisal district measures your plan against the Trans-Pecos edition. Intensity is the part landowners underestimate: it is not enough to name a practice, you have to do it at the scale the region expects — a stated number of brush acres, water sites, nest structures or survey nights, sustained annually. The seven worked examples above are written at that scale. The practical test is whether a chief appraiser reading your plan can tell how much of each practice you committed to, and whether your records show you did it.
Which species should a Trans-Pecos wildlife management plan target?
Whatever you name, it has to be indigenous — Texas Tax Code §23.51(7) qualifies land used to sustain a breeding, migrating or wintering population of native wild animals, and that is the species test that decides qualification. In the Trans-Pecos, plans are usually built around mule deer, pronghorn, desert bighorn sheep, scaled quail, Gambel’s quail, and golden eagles. Desert mule deer are the marquee species across the Trans-Pecos, with pronghorn on the grassland flats; a single well-placed water development can anchor an entire year’s practice log in this country. Introduced species are the common trap, so confirm every species you name in the plan is native to Texas before you file — managing for exotics (alone) earns nothing toward your three practices.
What is the minimum acreage in the Trans-Pecos?
For most tracts, none at all — an acreage test applies only where the tract was reduced in size since January 1 of the preceding year. And when it does apply, it is not the ecoregion that decides it: the 15 Trans-Pecos counties fall into 2 different TPWD wildlife appraisal regions, whose bands run from 25 to 100 acres. 1 of the 15 districts here has published the figure they adopted; the rest have not, and their county falls back to its band. See the figure for every county.
Which counties are in the Trans-Pecos?
15 of Texas's 254: Brewster, Crane, Culberson, Ector, El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Loving, Pecos, Presidio, Reeves, Terrell, Upton, Ward, Winkler. Each has its own guide covering the appraisal district, the filing calendar, and the acreage rule as it applies there. Texas ecoregions do not follow county lines, so a county on a boundary may read as Trans-Pecos on one side and something else on the other — where a district's own guidance points elsewhere, follow the district.
Which three practices should a Trans-Pecos plan start with?
Habitat control, supplemental water, and census counts is the combination that works almost everywhere, and it works here: habitat control is where the real management happens, water is the easiest to install and photograph, and a census produces dated evidence every year without fail. In the Trans-Pecos that means grubbing creosote to release desert grasses, re-seeding with black grama and sideoats, and modifying net-wire fences with goat bars for pronghorn passage. You need three of the seven each year, and you may change which three as the land changes — the requirement is three practices performed and documented, not three particular practices forever.

Statewide answers are in the full FAQ; the eligibility page covers who qualifies.

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