What the PWD‑885 is
The Wildlife Management Plan for Agricultural Tax Valuation (PWD‑885) is the TPWD-published form that describes how you’ll manage your property for native wildlife. It’s filed with your county appraisal district alongside the open-space application (Comptroller Form 50‑129) when you convert to wildlife management use — and it becomes the yardstick your land is measured against in every later year.
Think of it as a contract with your future self: the species you’ll manage for, the practices you’ll perform, and the intensity you’ll perform them at. The annual PWD‑888 report answers one question — did you do what the plan says? — so a plan you can realistically execute is worth more than an impressive one you can’t.
The one-sentence version
Describe your land honestly, pick native target species your ecoregion actually supports, commit to at least 3 of the 7 practices at your region’s intensity — and never promise a helicopter survey you don’t intend to fly.
Section by section
1. Ownership & property information
Owner details, county, acreage, and the appraisal district account number(s). If multiple tracts or owners are involved (family partnerships are common), list them consistently with your CAD records — mismatched names and account numbers are the #1 cause of avoidable processing delays.
2. Habitat description
What the land is: pasture ratios, brush cover, woodlands, creeks and tanks, soils. This doesn’t need to read like a thesis; it needs to be recognizably your property to someone who drives past it. Note degraded areas honestly — restoring them is management gold.
3. Target species
Native wildlife you’ll manage for: white-tailed deer and Rio Grande turkey are the classics, but songbirds, bobwhite quail, doves, pollinators, and wetland birds all qualify. Choose species your ecoregion supports — a plan managing for bighorn sheep in Bastrop County tells the appraiser you copied someone else’s plan.
4. Goals
Two to four honest sentences: “increase native forb and grass diversity for deer and turkey brood habitat; provide reliable summer water; control feral hogs.” Goals justify practices; practices feed reports.
5. The practices (3 of 7)
The heart of the form: which of the seven qualifying practices you’ll perform, and the specific activities under each. TPWD’s regional guidelines publish intensity standards — how much of an activity counts as real management for your ecoregion (feeder density, water-station spacing, survey frequency, acres treated). Your county page on this site summarizes what’s typical for your region.
What chief appraisers look for
- Ecoregion fit — practices and intensities that match TPWD’s guidance for your part of Texas.
- Internal consistency — goals, species, habitat, and practices that tell one coherent story.
- Feasibility — activities scaled to your acreage and access to water/equipment.
- Completeness — every required field, signed, filed inside the window with the 50‑129.
Five mistakes that get plans kicked back
- Copying a plan from a different ecoregion (the giveaway is usually the species list).
- Selecting all seven practices “to be safe” — then being accountable for all seven.
- Vague activities (“improve habitat”) instead of countable ones (“half-cut 20 mesquite/year for browse”).
- Intensity below the regional standard — one bird feeder on 90 acres is a bird feeder, not a program.
- Missing the April 30 window and paying the late-application penalty for a form that was 95% done in February.
How the app handles this
Our plan builder interviews you about your land and goals, then assembles a complete PWD‑885 with ecoregion-correct species, practices, and intensity levels — and every activity it proposes becomes a seasonal task with reminders. You review, adjust, and file with the packet we generate. See the flow →
Filing checklist
- PWD‑885 complete and signed
- Form 50‑129 (open-space application) marked for wildlife management use
- Filed with your county appraisal district between January 1 and April 30
- Copies kept — and your practice log started the same week
Sources & further reading
- Form PWD-885 (PDF) — Wildlife Management Plan — the current TPWD form itself
- Comptroller Form 50-129 (PDF) — Application for 1-d-1 Open-Space Appraisal — the application your PWD-885 attaches to
- TPWD: Agricultural Tax Appraisal Based on Wildlife Management Use — the state hub for wildlife-use valuation, including the regional Comprehensive Wildlife Management Planning Guidelines
- Comptroller: Agricultural & Timber Appraisal — current manuals and wildlife-use qualification guidelines
- Texas Tax Code §23.51 — the statute defining wildlife management as agricultural use