Smith County is East Texas timber and pasture around Tyler. A lot of rural land here is held in timber or ag valuations, and wildlife management is a strong fit for owners who are there to hunt and enjoy the woods.
Last reviewed October 2026. Your appraisal district has the final say, so confirm the details with them.
We walk your Smith County property, look at what the deer and other wildlife are using and what they lack, and write a plan around that. The plan names the practices, where they go and when, and who does each job.
We prepare your plan and help you file it with Smith County Appraisal District. After that we can help with the yearly practices and prepare the annual report from your records.
Outside Tyler, Whitehouse, Lindale and Troup, the county is Pineywoods: pine and hardwood timber, improved pasture, and creek bottoms draining to the Neches on the west and the Sabine on the north, with Lake Palestine and Lake Tyler nearby.
Pine timber grows fast and shades out food. The best wildlife work here keeps the canopy open and food growing: thinning, prescribed fire or mowing, openings, and protecting the hardwood bottoms that carry deer through the winter.
Thinning and prescribed burning in pine stands is habitat control and grows browse.
Protecting oak and hardwood along creeks keeps acorns and travel cover.
Supplemental food in small openings and pasture edges.
Repeated camera or spotlight surveys, recorded each year.
Every property is different. These are starting points, and the plan for your land comes from walking it.
Smith CAD's published 1-d-1 standards (2022) list a minimum of 10 acres for wildlife management and say annual reports are due every year to keep the wildlife valuation. Confirm the current figure with the district.
The same standards ask for a timber management plan for timber valuation, and say tracts under 5 acres are not eligible for an ag valuation.
For an ordinary ag valuation, Smith CAD's standards suggest about one cow per 10 acres of native pasture or one per 5 acres of improved pasture, and two hay cuttings a year. Smaller places must show they can feed supplementally.
District website: Smith County Appraisal District.
CHECK IT YOURSELF
LVG Wildlife Solutions prepares wildlife management plans and supporting records. We are not attorneys or tax advisors, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.
Plug in your acres and land value. The estimator uses Smith County's typical 2025 rural tax rate and the productivity value its appraisal district reports, then shows a rough yearly range and every figure it used.
Remember what it measures: the difference between full market-value taxes and an ag or wildlife valuation. If your land already has an ag valuation, a wildlife plan is how you keep that difference, not add to it.
See what goes into a wildlife management plan or ask us about your property.
Smith CAD's published 1-d-1 standards list 10 acres for wildlife management. The land must also have been in a 1-d-1 valuation the year before. Check with the district for the current figure.
Yes. The district's standards say annual reports are due every year to continue the wildlife valuation. We prepare the report from your records and help you file it.
Yes. Managed timber can be part of a wildlife plan when the work is done with wildlife in mind, such as thinning and burning to grow food under the trees.
More questions and answers · How the Texas wildlife exemption works
Maps, practices, a year-by-year calendar, cost estimates, and the forms ready to file.
Read moreTHE FIRST STEPWe walk your Smith County property, find what it's short of, and tell you straight what would help most.
Read moreTHE PROCESSFrom the first call to the site visit, the plan, filing help and every year after.
Read moreSERVICESAssessments, plans, annual reports and habitat work, in the order your land needs them.
Read moreWHY USWhitetail and habitat specialists who walk every property and stay with you after the plan.
Read moreGET STARTEDTell us the county, the acreage and your goals. Plans are quoted to the property.
Get in touchTell us the acreage, how it's used now and what you want from it. We'll tell you plainly what would help most and what it would take.