By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
Being a landowner is a point of pride for many Texans. But landowners, farmers and ranchers may not know the rights afforded by state and federal law regarding ownership.
Owning Your Piece of Texas: Key Laws Texas Landowners Need to Know, a workshop and handbook by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, covers key laws that may impact rural landowners and agricultural operations, including water law, fence law, landowner liability, eminent domain, special use tax valuation and more.
The handbook was written with a focus on practical, understandable language, according to AgriLife Extension Agricultural Law Specialist Tiffany Lashmet.
“Having grown up on a family farm and now owning one myself, it is always my goal to write something that can be understood and discussed by the farmers at the local coffee shop,” she said.
Lashmet expected about 125 people to attend the workshops covering the book’s contents when it launched last spring, but that goal was surpassed. More than 800 people showed up in 2019 to learn more about landowner rights and how to protect themselves.
The landowner workshops were so successful, Lashmet and her team won a Superior Service Award, presented at the annual Texas A&M AgriLife conference in College Station in January.
Now, four landowner workshops will be offered in 2020 to help landowners, farmers and ranchers get the most from the handbook and understand laws related to owning land in the Lone Star State.
The dates and locations for the 2020 workshops are as follows:
- March 4, Amarillo
- March 16, Conroe
- June 4, Seguin
- Sept. 15, Burnet
The program is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will include local attorney guest speakers, a copy of the Owning Your Piece of Texas handbook and lunch.
The cost is $75 per person.
When will you hold a course in North East Texas (New Boston, Dekalb, Texarkana, Mt.. Pleasant) all of the ones posted are too far to travel for a working man.
The courses are hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. You can reach out to Tiffany Dowell Lashmet, the program presenter, at tdowell@tamu.edu. Thanks!
We’d appreciate your holding one of these workshops in the Upper Neches /Trinity Valley region (which includes Smith, Anderson, Henderson, Van Zandt, Rains, Gregg, Rusk, Cherokee, Panola,Angelina, Wood, Upshur Kaufman, Hunt, Hopkins, and Harrison counties )
The courses are hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. You can reach out to Tiffany Dowell Lashmet, the program presenter, at tdowell@tamu.edu. Thanks!