Owning Your Piece of Texas event dates set for 2023

Award-winning program opens registration for three locations

The 2023 dates for the Owning Your Piece of Texas: Key Laws Texas Landowners Need to Know program have been announced.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service event will be from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at each location, and event dates and locations will be:
— March 13, Rosenberg Civic Center, 3825 Texas Highway 36, Rosenberg.
— April 14, Dripping Springs Ranch Park and Event Center, 1042 Event Center Drive, Dripping Springs.
— Sept. 26, Rains County Fairgrounds, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 69 and Texas Highway 19, Emory.

The cost is $75, and advance registration is required for each event at https://tx.ag/opt23. Registration is currently open, and seating is limited. All attendees will receive a hard copy of the “Owning Your Piece of Texas: Top Laws Texas Landowners Need to Know” handbook.

“Agricultural law is such an important topic for Texas landowners,” said Tiffany Lashmet, J.D., AgriLife Extension agriculture law specialist, Amarillo. “This program provides attendees with information on a broad number of common issues facing landowners from water law to eminent domain to landowner liability, fence law, special use tax valuation, wildlife management valuation and more.”

Expert speakers will include Lashmet and Blake Bennett, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension economist, Dallas, as well as local attorneys from each area.

Need-driven program for rural landowners

What is my liability if someone is injured while hunting on my property? How can I get a special tax-use valuation for my property? Are my legal responsibilities different if I have cattle in a “closed range” county?

Lashmet said the program will answer these and many other rural landowner and agricultural producer questions with general guidance and education on key legal issues related to their property.

“Texas landowners—both those who have owned land for generations and first-time property owners—need information about legal issues that affect their property,” Lashmet said. “Texas is undergoing the most significant generational land transfer in history, resulting in an onslaught of new landowners who have either inherited land or purchased a property for the first time.

“We know that understanding the legal issues that could arise and the legal rights of a landowner will be critical for the growing number of new landowners in the state.”

Lashmet said the “Owning Your Piece of Texas: Top Laws Texas Landowners Need to Know” handbook, which accompanies the course, is the only handbook of its kind that gathers such a broad range of topics in one place.

“And it is written for landowners, not for attorneys,” she said.

For those unable to attend in person, the online version of the course is available for $150.

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