Natural Resource and Land-Use Planning Services

Raven helps each client achieve their property goals by writing cost-effective, value-added, sustainable management plans. Whether you are concerned with the presence (or potential presence) of endangered species, or simply wish to manage your property’s resources in a more profitable and balanced manner, Raven will provide planning services that are customized to fit your individual needs. For many landowners, we can also help recover the hidden costs of conservation efforts through Federal and State grants, and also by applying recent legislation in Texas that reduces the property-tax burden for certain conservation and reforestation acres. The wide range of integrated services that Raven offers allows us to provide a variety of turnkey management plans by conducting inventory surveys, generating maps, ensuring compliance, and then executing the plan on-the-ground.

Habitat Conservation Plans for Endangered Species
Endangered species liability for private landowners can be minimized or eliminated by writing and implementing a Habitat Conservation Plan, which is provided for under authority of the Endangered Species Act and requires approval from the appropriate State and/or Federal regulatory agencies. Raven has written several such plans that have legally reduced the landowner liability and management burden, while at the same time providing more land management options and allowing a greater financial return on their natural resource assets.

Cost-share Grant Proposals
Several Federal and State programs provide cost-share funding for endangered species and/or ecological restoration efforts by private individuals. Raven is very familiar with this process and the available resources, and has successfully acquired more than 300 thousand dollars in cost-share funds for our clients by writing and implementing the appropriate management plans.

Wildlife Management and Ecological Restoration Plans
Raven has the knowledge and experience to provide species-specific or ecology-based management plans. Examples of species-specific plans include quality white-tailed deer, eastern turkey, and northern bobwhite quail management. In the past ten years, Raven has also written several ecological restoration plans, helping our clients to restore natural systems including open-prairie native grasslands, presettlement old-growth forests, post oak savannah, and wooded grasslands. The majority of projects associated with restoration also received cost-share funding from government agencies.

Tax Plans for Texas
Texas landowners who implement certain conservation programs on their property such as providing streamside management zones, critical habitat for endangered species, aesthetic management zones, and/or conservation of unique historical or cultural sites may qualify for a 50 percent reduction in the appraised value of these forested acres. Also, properties that change land-use class from agriculture to intensive wildlife management may be eligible to maintain the lower agricultural valuation. Raven has provided tax planning and management services to eligible Texas landowners on more than 5,000 acres which have resulted in a total annual savings of more than 30,000 dollars.