Institute hosts tax appraiser, assessor training
A recent tax appraiser and tax assessor training for land management for wildlife and livestock was a success, according to Brian Hays, Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI) program manager.
“The 34 participants attending found the training useful and unanimously agreed the information presented would help them in their job,” Hays said. “Getting hands on field experiences from natural resource professionals and land owners/managers helped the attendees understand all the decisions that go in to being a good land steward and the benefits provided to the general public from the state’s working lands.”
NRI along with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Cooke County and Noble Research Institute hosted the training Aug. 8 in Cooke County.
The training included guest speakers from AgriLife Extension, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. Continuing education credits were offered for tax appraisers and tax assessors.
Hays said the training was focused on eight topics:
- understanding economics of haying
- understanding basic wildlife management planning
- understanding native pasture management
- understanding introduced pasture management
- understanding how to determine stocking rate
- understanding bee keeping
- understanding Texas land trends
- understanding watershed management
In general, Hays said, participants had the lowest initial level of knowledge of understanding watershed management. Conversely, their highest initial level of knowledge pertained to the understanding of basic wildlife management planning.
“Following the training, when averaged across all eight teaching points, participants’ level of knowledge increased 55%, with a range of 26% to 83% depending on the individual teaching point,” Hays said. “The greatest increase in knowledge was for understanding of watershed management.”
The participants were from 13 counties:
- Collin
- Cooke
- Denton
- Fannin
- Grayson
- Gregg
- Hopkins
- Hunt
- Kaufman
- Palo Pinto
- Tarrant
- Upshur
- Van Zandt
Total acreage in these 13 counties is 6,856,896 acres with 4,898,920 under Ag Valuation in 2012. Of the total acreage under Ag Valuation, 79,199 acres had wildlife management as the qualifying practice in 2012 (see http://txlandtrends.org).
For more detailed information:
- Tax Appraiser & Tax Assessor Training Summary Report
- Agricultural Appraisal
- Wildlife management as the qualifying agricultural practice
