diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b3d7081e7..562df31c9 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -12,10 +12,9 @@ before_install:
   - conda info -a
 
 install:
-  - conda create --name icepyx-env --channel conda-forge python=3.10 proj geos
+  - conda create --name icepyx-env --channel conda-forge python=3.10 pip proj geos
   - source activate icepyx-env
-  - pip install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt
-  - pip install -e .[complete]
+  - pip install -e .[dev,complete]
 
 stages:
   - name: basic tests
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 957ccc9e2..df6813f58 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -9,4 +9,3 @@ exclude *.ini
 exclude *.txt
 exclude *.yaml
 exclude *.yml
-include requirements.txt
diff --git a/doc/source/contributing/how_to_contribute.rst b/doc/source/contributing/how_to_contribute.rst
index 84c21717b..68bd3eb08 100644
--- a/doc/source/contributing/how_to_contribute.rst
+++ b/doc/source/contributing/how_to_contribute.rst
@@ -73,38 +73,39 @@ update your local copy of icepyx with
 
 to ensure you have the most up to date version of icepyx in your library.
 
+Setting up a Development Work Environment
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-If you are modifying portions of code, you will need to run
-
-.. code-block:: shell
+You will need to install icepyx in editable mode, so that when we make changes, they will immediately be testable at runtime.
+You will also need icepyx's dependencies and some dev tooling (for automated checks, tests, and documentaiton).
 
-    pip install -e.
+To set this up, start in the root of your local copy of the icepyx repo.
+Then, create a new environment using mamba (or conda, or a tool of your choice) and activate it.
+Finally, install icepyx and needed dependencies in to it:
 
-within your Python environment to use your real-time edited version of the code during runtime.
+.. code-block:: shell
 
+    mamba create --name icepyx-dev pip
+    mamba activate icepyx-dev
+    pip install --editable .[dev,docs]
 
-Setting up a Development Work Environment
------------------------------------------
+Setting up development tools
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-icepyx uses a few tools to ensure that files have consistent formatting and run tests.
-You can easily install the ones most frequently used by creating a new mamba (or conda)
-environment (from the home level of your local copy of the icepyx repo) with
+One of the dev tools we just installed is called `pre-commit <https://pre-commit.com/>`_.
+We have included a set of pre-commit formatting hooks that we strongly encourage all contributors to use.
+Configure those hooks to automatically execute with:
 
 .. code-block:: shell
 
-    mamba env create --name icepyx-env --channel conda-forge -f requirements-dev.txt -f requirements.txt
-
-and then (1) running `pre-commit install` to let git know about pre-commit and
-(2) pip installing icepyx as described above and below.
+    pre-commit install
 
-One of the tools installed with "requirements-dev.txt" is called [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/).
-We have included a set of pre-commit formatting hooks that we strongly encourage all contributors to use.
-These hooks will check the files you are committing for format consistency,
-reformatting the files if necessary.
+These hooks will check the files you are committing for format consistency and reformat them if necessary.
 You can tell files were reformatted if you get a message showing one of the checks failed.
-In this case, you will need to re-commit your changes until all pre-commit hooks pass
-(i.e. a failed pre-commit check results in no git commit).
-Pre-commit will also run on icepyx PRs using the pre-commit CI (continuous integration).
+In this case, pre-commit has prevented the commit from completing.
+You will need to re-add and the formatted files and try to commit again until all pre-commit hooks pass.
+
+pre-commit will also run on icepyx PRs using the pre-commit CI (continuous integration) service.
 As with other automations happening in PRs,
 you'll want to make sure you pull the changes back to your local version before making new commits.
 
@@ -116,7 +117,7 @@ If you are working in Jupyter Notebook, in addition to manually installing your
 
 .. code-block:: shell
 
-    pip install -e.
+    pip install --editable .[dev,docs]
 
 you will need to dynamically reload icepyx within your notebook by executing
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 4f4c0a88c..377f8374d 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ license = {file = "LICENSE"}
 readme = "README.rst"
 
 requires-python = "~=3.7"
-dynamic = ["version", "dependencies"]
+dynamic = ["version"]
 
 authors = [
   {name = "The icepyx Developers", email = "jbscheick@gmail.com"},
@@ -31,6 +31,49 @@ classifiers=[
   "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries",
 ]
 
+dependencies = [
+  "backoff",
+  "dask[dataframe]",
+  "datashader",
+  "earthaccess>=0.5.1",
+  "fiona",
+  "geopandas",
+  "h5netcdf",
+  "h5py",
+  "holoviews",
+  "hvplot",
+  "matplotlib",
+  "numpy",
+  "requests",
+  "s3fs",
+  "shapely",
+  "xarray",
+]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+dev = [
+  "pre-commit",
+  "pypistats",
+  "pytest>=4.6",
+  "pytest-cov",
+  "responses",
+]
+docs = [
+  "gitpython",
+  "linkify-it-py",
+  "myst-nb",
+  "nbsphinx",
+  "numpydoc",
+  "pybtex",
+  "pygithub",
+  "sphinx>=4.3",
+  "sphinx-panels",
+  "sphinx_rtd_theme>=1.0",
+  "sphinxcontrib-bibtex",
+]
+viz = ["geoviews >= 1.9.0", "cartopy >= 0.18.0", "scipy"]
+complete = ["icepyx[viz]"]
+
 [project.urls]
 Homepage = "https://icepyx.readthedocs.io"
 Documentation = "https://icepyx.readthedocs.io"
@@ -46,13 +89,6 @@ requires = ["setuptools>=66", "wheel", "setuptools_scm"]
 [tool.setuptools]
 py-modules = ["_icepyx_version"]
 
-[tool.setuptools.dynamic]
-dependencies = {file = ["requirements.txt"]}
-
-[project.optional-dependencies]
-viz = ["geoviews >= 1.9.0", "cartopy >= 0.18.0", "scipy"]
-complete = ["icepyx[viz]"]
-
 [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
 exclude = ["*tests"]
 
@@ -61,6 +97,8 @@ version_file = "_icepyx_version.py"
 version_file_template = 'version = "{version}"'
 local_scheme = "node-and-date"
 fallback_version = "unknown"
+
+
 # [tool.ruff.format]
 # docstring-code-format = true
 # docstring-code-line-length = "dynamic"
diff --git a/readthedocs.yml b/readthedocs.yml
index dba60979f..efe60b8a7 100644
--- a/readthedocs.yml
+++ b/readthedocs.yml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ formats: all
 # Optionally declare the Python requirements required to build your docs
 python:
   install:
-    - requirements: requirements-docs.txt
-    - requirements: requirements.txt
     - method: pip
       path: .
+      extra_requirements:
+        - docs
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 66106dab8..000000000
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-pre-commit
-pypistats
-pytest>=4.6
-pytest-cov
-responses
diff --git a/requirements-docs.txt b/requirements-docs.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 51dc9ff5a..000000000
--- a/requirements-docs.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-gitpython
-linkify-it-py
-myst-nb
-nbsphinx
-numpydoc
-pybtex
-pygithub
-sphinx>=4.3
-sphinx-panels
-sphinx_rtd_theme>=1.0
-sphinxcontrib-bibtex
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 6a9659270..000000000
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-backoff
-dask[dataframe]
-datashader
-earthaccess>=0.5.1
-fiona
-geopandas
-h5netcdf
-h5py
-holoviews
-hvplot
-matplotlib
-numpy
-requests
-s3fs
-shapely
-xarray