Automated Online Managed Lands Deer Program Rollout Coming Soon

TPWD | April 06, 2017

New system simplifies harvest recommendations, offers print at home tag issuance

AUSTIN – Landowners participating in the highly-popular Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP) will be able to complete the enrollment process and print their tags online beginning this summer, thanks to a new automated system being implemented by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The new online process is just one aspect of a much-needed overhaul of the MLDP, which began in 1996 and has become so successful that it outpaced the department’s manpower and resources.




Currently, more than 10,000 farms and ranches covering about 26 million acres are enrolled in the MLD program, which is designed to foster and support sound management and stewardship of native wildlife and wildlife habitats on private lands in Texas. Participation is recognized through incentive-based deer tag issuance that provides extended hunting season lengths and liberalized harvest opportunities beyond what is allowed under the county regulations. Participants also have access to varying levels of technical assistance regarding wildlife and habitat management from TPWD biologists.

deer programTPWD has simplified the program down to two options — Harvest or Conservation — from the previous three levels of white-tailed deer MLD, mule deer MLD, and the Landowner Assisted Management Permit or LAMPS. Both options retain issuance of deer tags that can be used during an extended hunting season from about Oct. 1 through the end of February, but the Harvest Option does come with early season buck harvest restrictions (archery equipment only in October for branched-antlered bucks). Antlerless and unbranched antler bucks may still be harvested by any legal means during the entire MLDP season.

Landowners seeking to enroll in either the MLDP Harvest or Conservation Option must use the new Land Management Assistance online system when it becomes available to submit an application for participation.  Read more…

Comments

comments