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Contact: Megan Urban, 409-951-6700
KOUNTZE, Texas – Big Thicket National Preserve would like to remind hunters who have a 2024-2025 hunting permit that the return date for harvest cards is April 1, 2025. If hunters do not return their harvest card, there will be a 1-month delay before they can receive a hunting permit for the 2025-2026 season.
“Each year for the past 5 years, we have seen a 40% return rate for harvest cards,” states Superintendent Wayne Prokopetz. “We are looking to increase the return rate so we have more robust data to make management decisions. Therefore, it is very important that hunters return the cards each year.”
Hunters have three different ways to return their harvest card by the April 1st deadline:
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In-person at the Big Thicket Visitor Center – 6102 FM 420, Kountze, TX 77625
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Email a photo of the harvest card to bith_information@nps.gov
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Mail the card to 6044 FM 420, Kountze, TX 77625
If a hunter doesn’t return their harvest card before the April 1st deadline, they will not be able to pick up a permit for the 2025-2026 season until the Friday before hunting season starts, about a month after we begin issuing permits.
Anyone may hunt for free during fall and winter in Big Thicket National Preserve with a free hunting permit, available at the visitor center. See our hunting page for more information.
If hunters have questions, or have lost their harvest card, they can call the visitor center at 409-951-6700.
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Big Thicket National Preserve is in Southeast Texas, near the city of Beaumont and 75 miles northeast of Houston. The preserve consists of nine land units and six water corridors encompassing more than 113,000 acres. The Big Thicket, often referred to as a “biological crossroads,” is a transition zone between four distinct vegetation types – the moist eastern hardwood forest, the southwestern desert, the southeastern swamp, and the central prairies. Species from all these different vegetation types come together in the thicket, exhibiting a variety of vegetation and wildlife that has received global interest.
Last updated: March 17, 2025