Cool Montana Mapping Tool!

Big Fin

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Just in time for Big Game Season, there is a release of a great new mapping tool for Montana hunters. Go to the link below and look at the Montana Sportsmen's Atlas.

It has the Game Management Units, Block Management Properties, landownership when you drill down into the detail, and shows you where LWCF (Land and Water Conservation Funds) have been used to improve access and habitat in Montana.

Montana Sportsmen's Atlas


Go there and check it out. I got a peek glimpse prior to this and was very impressed. Today, it was rolled out for keeps, so I am sharing this with all of you who migh hunt Montana.

I hope you take time to look at all the red dots that represent LWCF projects. This is a program the House of Representatives has zeroed out in the budget, even though the monies paid into this fund are earmarked for access and conservation. To me, for Congress to divert those funds to pay for their own spending habits is the equivalent of them raiding the Pitmann-Robertson excise taxes we pay on our hunting equipment.

Having been involved in a ton of Montana land projects, I can assure you that most of them would not have been completed if not for LWCF. If not for LWCF, we would not have many of the big access projects now in public ownership; projects most of us now use for elk and deer hunting.

If a politician is wanting to raid LWCF and not fund it as agreed to by the enabling legislation that started it, they should be tossed out on their head. Of course, those who want to raid that fund also want to sell the public lands, so not a big surprise there.

Anyhow, very cool resource. I hope all Montana hunters take advantage of it. Combined with the map chips from huntingGPSmaps.com, there should be no reason to not be out there investigating every corner of Montana.
 
Thanks Big Fin, although i wont be there for another 10 days that will help.
It is very user friendly.
Cheers
Richard
 
Great site! I think we have all been trying to do this with multiple website open on our computer at one time. It is nice to have them all on one easy site.
 
This is a great link,thanks for sharing. Wish I was going to be there hunting this year.
 
I'm guessing that its a work in progress, but I'm finding, particularly in one area I hunt, that the land ownership that this map shows is a far cry from what I see on Forest Service and BLM maps and FWP's hunt planner. I don't mean just where the lines are drawn, but multiple entire sections that should be private are showing up as FS in a large checkerboard area. A good reminder for people using this, make sure you compare it to an official land use map or resource, especially for public land access and land ownership, hence the reason for their disclaimers.
 
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I'm guessing that its a work in progress, but I'm finding, particularly in one area I hunt, that the land ownership that this map shows is a far cry from what I see on Forest Service and BLM maps and FWP's hunt planner. I don't mean just where the lines are drawn, but multiple entire sections that should be private are showing up as FS in a large checkerboard area. A good reminder for people using this, make sure you compare it to an official land use map or resource, especially for public land access and land ownership, hence the reason for their disclaimers.

I'll pass this along to the programmer. A new version is being worked out.
 
I'm guessing that its a work in progress, but I'm finding, particularly in one area I hunt, that the land ownership that this map shows is a far cry from what I see on Forest Service and BLM maps and FWP's hunt planner. I don't mean just where the lines are drawn, but multiple entire sections that should be private are showing up as FS in a large checkerboard area. A good reminder for people using this, make sure you compare it to an official land use map or resource, especially for public land access and land ownership, hence the reason for their disclaimers.
Though not in MT, but I ran into a similar issue here in Indiana. I found and downloaded a shapefile of lands managed by the Indiana DNR from a state of Indiana sponsored website. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the land I had just purchased was inside, and not by a little, the boundary for a local WMA! I was not the only landowner in that area that was mistakeningly included in the boundary. I called the DNR and have since got the issue resolved for my land and informed them of the others in the area. It does pay to do your homework. Same can be said for the paper maps sold by the agency. In the office I worked in one of the 100K maps we sold was printed in the 1990's. I know of at least 3 large land exchanges that had happened since then...

That is one reason my next GPS purchase will be for one that can overlay actual shapefiles on them. These can be had from free either off the web (which for me would have the same caution) or directly from the agency themself (which I feel is the better way).
 
I'll pass this along to the programmer. A new version is being worked out.

I thought it especially strange that I followed the link to the NRIS site and check out the GIS landownership map, and it was correct, so not sure how it got messed up on your layer. Maybe it was just that one area too, if it helps I can sure let you know where it was.
 
This is a great tool. Now that I am researching a possible Montana elk/deer hunt, this will be very helpful in my research. Thank you for sharing it Randy!
 
I tried this one out, but was having some problems as previously stated. I'm not the greatest tech person though, so figured it could just be me.

Had a deer hunt coming up fast, so went out and bought the Montana Hunting gps maps. It seemed very accurate where we were hunting. Roads were where the map stated and fences marking ranches all seemed pretty accurate. Even springs, reservoirs, and all of that were pretty much spot on.

I'm glad I had it on this last trip.FWIW
 
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