Amend CSHB 4180 (senate committee report) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTION to the bill and renumbering SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:

SECTION ____.  Effective January 1, 2018, Section 23.51(1), Tax Code, is amended to read as follows:

(1)  "Qualified open-space land" means land that is currently devoted principally to agricultural use to the degree of intensity generally accepted in the area and that has been devoted principally to agricultural use or to production of timber or forest products for five of the preceding seven years or land that is used principally as an ecological laboratory by a public or private college or university. Qualified open-space land includes all appurtenances to the land. For the purposes of this subdivision, appurtenances to the land means private roads, dams, reservoirs, water wells, canals, ditches, terraces, and other reshapings of the soil, fences, and riparian water rights. Notwithstanding the other provisions of this subdivision:

(A)  [,] land that is currently devoted principally to wildlife management as defined by Subdivision (7)(B) or (C) to the degree of intensity generally accepted in the area qualifies for appraisal as qualified open-space land under this subchapter regardless of the manner in which the land was used in any preceding year; and

(B)  land that is used principally as an ecological laboratory by a public or private college or university does not qualify for appraisal as qualified open-space land under this subchapter on the basis of that use unless the land was appraised as qualified open-space land under this subchapter on the basis of that use for the 2017 tax year.

(b)  Section 23.51(l), Tax Code, as amended by this section, applies only to the appraisal of land for ad valorem tax purposes for a tax year that begins on or after January 1, 2018.