Texas Farm and Ranch Land Conservation Easements
A voluntary state grant program helps fund easements that keep working lands in agricultural or timber use, the specific agreement, not the statute, sets the restrictions.
House Bill 2018 (effective September 1, 2025) strengthened the existing Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program, a voluntary state grant program that helps fund agricultural conservation easements on working lands. It did not create the program from nothing, and it did not create a new homestead exemption.
Current funding cycle reviewed July 22, 2026: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department states that the application window for Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program grant funding is closed and that the next funding cycle will open in July 2027, with project funding subject to legislative appropriation. Check the official TPWD program page for current availability before planning around a deadline.
What changed
HB 2018 refined how the program defines and scores agricultural conservation easements. Under the enacted law, an agricultural conservation easement must be designed to maintain agricultural or timber use, and it must also accomplish at least one additional statutory conservation purpose involving water quality or quantity, native wildlife habitat, rare or sensitive plant species, or large open-space tracts threatened by fragmentation or development. Grant applications protecting productive agricultural or timberland susceptible to development, subdivision, or fragmentation receive priority, agricultural or timber productivity is an express scoring factor, and the scoring process considers whether an easement is perpetual or runs for a 30-year term.
Who this may affect
Farm, ranch, and timberland owners weighing long-term conservation options; heirs and future purchasers of land already under easement; land trusts and other easement holders; and lenders with an interest in encumbered land. Participation is voluntary, no landowner is required to grant an easement.
What the law does not do
HB 2018 does not establish a new homestead exemption, and it does not automatically prevent any landowner from developing property. The restrictions on a particular tract arise from the specific easement agreement the landowner signs, not from the statute itself. It also helps to keep two interests separate: ownership of the land and ownership or holding of the conservation-easement interest are not the same thing, the landowner keeps the land, while the easement holder holds the right to enforce the agreed restrictions.
Questions before entering a conservation easement
Because an easement can bind the land for decades, or permanently, careful landowners work through questions like these before signing: How long does the easement last, and can it ever be terminated? Which development rights are given up, and which agricultural and timber uses remain? How does the easement bind heirs and future purchasers? What do my mortgage lender and any lienholders require? How are mineral, water, access, and improvement rights treated? Who enforces the easement, and how? How will the easement affect appraisal and property taxes? And has a qualified Texas attorney reviewed the specific agreement? The agency, easement holder, appraisal district, court, or lender, not this page, makes the determinations that matter for a particular tract.
Practical next steps
Read the official TPWD program page, note the July 2027 funding-cycle opening, and contact the program at the address TPWD publishes. Gather your deed, survey, appraisal information, and lender contacts early, easement projects involve title work, valuation, and legal review that take time.
The key takeaway
HB 2018 sharpened a voluntary, existing grant program for agricultural conservation easements on working lands. The statute sets the purposes and scoring; the easement agreement a landowner actually signs sets the restrictions. Read the agreement, ask the hard questions, and get qualified review before committing land for 30 years or forever.
Official sources
Final enrolled law: HB 2018 enrolled bill text (Texas Legislature Online).
Official program: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department . Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program, including the current request-for-applications status and program contact.
Last reviewed July 22, 2026. Laws, programs: deadlines, forms, rule statuses, and agency guidance may change, please verify with the official sources above and consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.