Tennessee Landowner Hunting License Exemption Form (TWRA): Rules and Penalties

Tennessee residents who own or farm their land can hunt and fish on it without buying a state license by filling out the TWRA Farmland Owner License Exemption Statement, Form WR-0820. It’s a one-page self-certification: you complete it, sign it, and keep it with you in the field. You never mail it to TWRA or file it with any county office. If a wildlife officer asks for it, you hand it over along with your ID.

What to Put on the Form

You can download Form WR-0820 from tnwildlife.org or pick one up at any TWRA regional office.¹ The form asks you to attest that you meet the requirements of Tennessee Code § 70-2-204(a). Fill in every field. The statute requires the statement to contain “information sufficient to demonstrate” that you qualify, so a blank line or a vague property description can give an officer reason to treat the form as incomplete.²

Your full legal name, matching the ID you’ll be carrying.
Your relationship to the landowner: owner, spouse, child, child’s spouse, grandchild or great-grandchild under sixteen, or qualifying tenant.
The county where the property sits and the total acreage.
Property identification: either the Deed Book and Page number, or the Tax Map and Parcel number. Both are available from the county Register of Deeds or the property assessor. Most Tennessee counties let you look this up online by the owner’s name.
The landowner’s name, if you aren’t the owner yourself.
Your signature. The form isn’t valid without one, and signing it is a legal attestation that you qualify.

Fill it out before you head to the field rather than at a check station. Looking up a Deed Book number while an officer waits is not the position you want to be in.

Who Can Sign One

Tennessee Code § 70-2-204 lays out who the exemption covers. If you hold title to farmland and live in Tennessee, you qualify. So does your spouse, your children, and the spouses of your children, with no age cap on any of them. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren qualify only while they’re under sixteen; once a grandchild turns sixteen, they need their own hunting license to hunt on the family property unless they fit another exempt category.²

Tenants qualify too, but the terms are narrower. The tenancy has to be agricultural, with the tenant working the land in exchange for compensation such as free rent, wages, or a crop share. The tenant’s spouse and dependent children are covered as long as the family actually lives on the land, not just visits it to hunt.²

Everyone claiming the exemption, without exception, must be a bona fide Tennessee resident. An out-of-state owner who buys 200 acres in Fayette County still needs a non-resident hunting license to hunt on their own land.²

What Property Qualifies

The ownership structure of the land matters as much as who’s hunting on it. The property must be owned by no more than one individual or one family. “Family” means any combination of relatives within the third degree of kinship, including a spouse who holds an interest in the property.²

Land owned by a corporation, LLC, or partnership that includes members outside the family generally does not qualify. There’s one narrow exception: if the property is jointly owned by first cousins related by blood, those cousins and their children can hunt small game and fish on the land under the exemption. That exception does not reach big game hunting.²

There is no minimum acreage. A five-acre family farm qualifies on the same terms as a thousand-acre tract, as long as the ownership fits.

Carrying the Form and Showing It to an Officer

Form WR-0820 stays with you. You have two options under the statute: carry a completed form while hunting, or complete one on the spot when a TWRA officer asks for it in the field or at a check station.² Doing it in advance is far easier.

When an officer approaches, you’ll need to produce identification along with the signed statement. The officer can check property boundaries and ownership against county records. Without a completed form and ID, the encounter looks the same as hunting with no license at all, and a citation can follow.

Keep the paper in a plastic bag or waterproof sleeve. A soaked, illegible form is the same as no form.

What the Exemption Does Not Cover

The form replaces your state hunting and fishing license. It does not replace other requirements that sit on top of licensing.

If you hunt ducks, geese, or other migratory waterfowl, you still need a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, commonly called the duck stamp. It applies to everyone sixteen and older, with no carve-out for landowners. The stamp costs $25 and runs July 1 through June 30.³ Federal law also requires Harvest Information Program (HIP) registration before you hunt any migratory bird, including doves and woodcock. HIP registration is free through the TWRA licensing system, and the farmland exemption doesn’t waive it.

Hunter education is one place landowners catch a break. Tennessee generally requires certification for anyone born on or after January 1, 1969, but landowners and their children hunting under the farmland exemption on the parent’s own land are exempt from both hunter education and the blaze orange or pink clothing requirement that otherwise applies to gun hunters.

Every other wildlife regulation still applies in full. The exemption does not let you hunt out of season, exceed bag limits, or ignore weapon rules.² You still have to report harvested deer and turkey through TWRA’s Telechecking system, and any big game taken illegally can be confiscated along with the vehicle used to transport it.⁴

Penalties for a False or Missing Form

Putting false information on a signed exemption statement is a Class C misdemeanor under Tennessee law, carrying up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $50, plus potential loss of hunting privileges.² Giving false information to obtain any license or exemption is separately classified as a misdemeanor that can result in a fine and loss of your license.⁵ Hunting without either a valid license or a properly completed form can bring a citation and a court appearance, and illegally possessed big game can be confiscated along with the vehicle.⁴

1
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. TWRA Tennessee Farmland Hunting License Exemption Form
2
Justia. Tennessee Code 70-2-204 – Hunting and Fishing on Farmland – License Exemption to Owners, Tenants, and Specified Spouses and Relatives – Proof of Compliance
3
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Federal Duck Stamp
4
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. TWRA Frequently Asked Questions
5
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. License Structure and Fees