# New law regarding public land access mapping



## Lumberman (Sep 27, 2010)

This is great news! It will really help with water access for seem to be private lakes and rivers. 

The more readily available access information is the better. 

Sure there’s going to be that guy who’s secret spot might be found by someone else.


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

I hadnt considered the 'private' lakes.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Bumping this one to ask about OnX in a general sense as I just finally downloaded it. I have been using paper maps for a long long time and don't totally need OnX, but more up-to-date property ownership information could be randomly useful to me. Is there any other thread in here somewhere specifically for OnX discussion?

So in the midst of everything that is 2020, did the MAPLand Act become a reality?

I have camped and worked and fished on Federal land for decades and have never heard of needing the concept of an easement to access it - is that an actual 'thing' anywhere in Michigan?


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## UPEsox (Feb 2, 2018)

God forbid the public has access to their land. 

Knowing the legal routes in or out is unambiguously a good thing. Sheesh


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

Onx is convenient for sure. Often there will be information not on Google maps and there's definitely better tools and features in some cases. I also find knowing where the boundaries are based on my actual location is nice. Fun skipping the terrain association between maps.

One thing i run into out of the field escouting is that I end up cross referencing maps anyways due to the better depiction of roads and towns. A lot of time these details are harder for me to navigate or get cluttered out on onx. Also the 3d option on google earth, the multiple satellite images taken at different dates, and especially the roadside pictures at certain locations can really aid in your escouting.

Onx also has competitors. I do think that one or the other is a great investment for hunting large tracts of public and I use it more than anything in the field.


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## fish2much (Oct 16, 2009)

TriggerDiscipline said:


> Anything that prevents trespassing by people acting in good faith is useful in my opinion. As I've read, out west there is a real problem with private landowners and ranchers blocking rightful public access. This could help put a stop to it.
> 
> As for helping "lazy millenial hunters", I highly doubt it. the map isn't going to show you where the game is.


The millennials don’t have a monopoly on lazy hunting. I’ve seen it for decades, long before they were around.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Used OnX just a little today. Though I like technology and am very comfortable with it, it’s just not something I think of, reach for, or need when I go outside. And I don’t really want to take my phone with me while fishing anyway. I rarely fire up Google Earth, indoors or out. I grew up wandering around in Appalachia. Just pay attention is the main skill. 

That said, I do hope I can get it to show me pure topography, sans the satellite imagery. That would be pretty cool. Research is good. 

I would not be surprised to find a county where the parcel ID doesn’t work. Not every county has that on the web, yet. And I really kind of wonder how OnX broke the Rockford Publishing monopoly with that data, so I expect a county here and there might still cling to them perhaps. 

Who competes with OnX? One small annual fee for plat maps + topo seems like it would be hard to beat.


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## Botiz (Oct 21, 2010)

B.Jarvinen said:


> Used OnX just a little today. Though I like technology and am very comfortable with it, it’s just not something I think of, reach for, or need when I go outside. And I don’t really want to take my phone with me while fishing anyway. I rarely fire up Google Earth, indoors or out. I grew up wandering around in Appalachia. Just pay attention is the main skill.
> 
> That said, I do hope I can get it to show me pure topography, sans the satellite imagery. That would be pretty cool. Research is good.
> 
> ...


To get topo, just hit this button here.


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## Sparky23 (Aug 15, 2007)

B.Jarvinen said:


> Used OnX just a little today. Though I like technology and am very comfortable with it, it’s just not something I think of, reach for, or need when I go outside. And I don’t really want to take my phone with me while fishing anyway. I rarely fire up Google Earth, indoors or out. I grew up wandering around in Appalachia. Just pay attention is the main skill.
> 
> That said, I do hope I can get it to show me pure topography, sans the satellite imagery. That would be pretty cool. Research is good.
> 
> ...


Hunt stand is cheaper. And close to the same.


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## 22 Chuck (Feb 2, 2006)

Anything that prevents trespassing by people acting in good faith is useful in my opinion. As I've read, out west there is a real problem with private landowners and ranchers blocking rightful public access. This could help put a stop to it.

Copied from first page--

We were travelling into Casper WY on a Labor day weekend about 10 yrs ago. All campgrounds were full. I happened to see a DNR truck setting at an intersection. Stopped and talked. They were doing antelope checks. I was rold that a few miles down the road and the land became public every other mile, on both sides of the road. I thought the guy meant camping was allowed??
In the area mentioned the barbwire fence was along both sides of the road for 20 mi. So much for public land.

Drive across ND and Montana--800++ miles. That is all your land and mine(95%) but has 800 mi of wire on each side...
Leased to cattle growers for 5 cents/acre I guess.


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

CL-Lewiston said:


> Anything that prevents trespassing by people acting in good faith is useful in my opinion. As I've read, out west there is a real problem with private landowners and ranchers blocking rightful public access. This could help put a stop to it.
> 
> Copied from first page--
> 
> ...


I'm not sure that we dont have access to the land that ranchers lease. I think we do in at least many cases. I'm not sure about the finances of ranching and whether 5 cents is a fair price for rent. Based on what ive heard about the productivity of the land, can't be worth much.

In the good pronghorn areas out west most the the roads that would lead to our public areas are (conveniently) not maintained by the county and are shut off by ranchers. Ranchers will then lease access to outfitters. There are also special tags in these areas for private land only. All fuels money into outfitter pockets so they can charge you $2k for a day's drive in the pickup bushwacking a pronghorn.

This is why me and my brother ponied up for a special tag in an area with not so great habitat so we only needed a few points. But at least the area has plenty of access and still plenty of pronghorn. I would also be fine paying a tresspass fee to a rancher to get on land he actually owns. It's his land and he needs to eke out a living out of the dust as it is. But a guide for pronghorn. Yeah no thanks.


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

Apparently gohunt now has a new mapping app with quite a few interesting features including 3d. 

Found out from a video from a hunting personality that was (at least) sponsored by onx and he was always talking about onx. I love it when tv hunters change sponsors. One day he's got a hot blonde speaking all those loving words about how she's the only one he could ever love and he wants everyone to know she's the best. Next day he's got his arms around a brunette and he's saying all the same things. First you think, did she dye here hair ? No it's a different woman!


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## d_rek (Nov 6, 2013)

Lucky Dog said:


> The easements have always been there now every lazy person will have easy access to them


So you're saying that simply not knowing about something makes someone lazy?

IMO if they are public land easements they should be documented and made visible on maps of public land. What on earth does that have to do with being lazy? Hell i'm paying for the use of public lands and I want to know if there is a legal easement for me to access the very land i've already paid to use.

But by your logic I should have deduced access already through some other means? Presumably by driving around parcels, asking landowners, etc.?

Also the idea that there are "secret" spots anymore is complete hogwash. That notion went out the window a few years ago with the advent of digital scouting and readily available topo maps. OnX and the like only accelerated that trend. And anyone who has hunted any amount of public land knows that there are no "secrets", only places people are willing or unwilling to go. 

Heck point me to the most remote location you can find in the Pigeon and I bet I can walk there and find a couple empty cans of busch and an old popup blind.


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## shaffe48b (Oct 22, 2019)

Lazy to what extent you aren't contacting the counties and getting the platt books and pooring over them. Personally, i don't see much distinction between an app being lazy and a book being hard working but you know how people can be.

Lazy to what extent you are just hunting public land vs knocking on doors and asking permission. As many of us have experienced, land owners like controlling what is going on in the area and would rather you ask their permission to hunt the area even if it's mostly public. These desires being unrealistic don't make them uncommon.

Lazy finally because you can do it from your couch vs scout in person. But you'll never figure out land boundaries in person because some are marked poorly and in other cases incorectly to make public land appear private. There's also aspects of the topography that you'll struggle to grasp from on the ground.


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## brdhntr (Oct 1, 2003)

shaffe48b said:


> Lazy to what extent you aren't contacting the counties and getting the platt books and pooring over them. Personally, i don't see much distinction between an app being lazy and a book being hard working but you know how people can be.


Many of these are not marked on the platt maps or anything else that is accessible by the general public. If you are using a platt map as your sole proof you have a right to be somewhere, you better be darn sure about it.
I know of more than a few of these, and the landowners will confront you if you try to use it. In one case, I know the family, so they don't bother. In another it took an actual visit from an officer at which point the No Tresspassing signs were removed. 

From the article:" Often, those documents are kept in some dusty file in a government office, where the public has no simple way to know about them." They aren't accessible unless you know who has them, and if that person even remembers they are there, and is willing to look for them if you know who to ask. To call wanting this stuff available in form a that anyone can use to be "lazy" is just ridiculous.


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## wannabeup (Aug 16, 2006)

Grinnell said:


> Nothing compares to time in woods wandering with a dog eared delorme on the dash


My delorme and michigan outdoor map books are full of circles, x's, and notation lines. The pages of kent, newago, and lake counties have long ago become seperated from over use. Marquette and baraga counties are barely hanging on.


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## jiggin is livin (Jan 7, 2011)

Wouldn't it just be easier if Michigan was like other States, where you could cross private property to access public land, as long as you didn't stop to hunt or fish the private....


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## DirtySteve (Apr 9, 2006)

jiggin is livin said:


> Wouldn't it just be easier if Michigan was like other States, where you could cross private property to access public land, as long as you didn't stop to hunt or fish the private....


Are many states like that? I assumed not but i really wouldnt know. I watch hunting shows like randy newberg or THP. They are usually asking permission using onx to track down a landowner.....or on more than one occasion i have seen newberg helicopter into a piece of landlocked public land.


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## jiggin is livin (Jan 7, 2011)

DirtySteve said:


> Are many states like that? I assumed not but i really wouldnt know. I watch hunting shows like randy newberg or THP. They are usually asking permission using onx to track down a landowner.....or on more than one occasion i have seen newberg helicopter into a piece of landlocked public land.


honestly, I am not sure how many are. I was being slightly sarcastic.


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