What tools do you use to determine the property owner or land manager?

[+thekingofbattle]

I teach an EarthCache Writing 101 class...and of course, a major item that we discuss is obtaining permission. 

 

Personally, I tend to go with state or local parks because it's typically pretty easy to track down the right person.

 

But...does anyone know of any online tools available that are easy to use...and free?

[+Mausebiber]

Quote

What tools do you use to determine the property owner or land manager?

 

Internet and telephone, however, both are not free.

 

 

Edited March 4 by Mausebiber

[+kunarion]

13 hours ago, thekingofbattle said:

I teach an EarthCache Writing 101 class...and of course, a major item that we discuss is obtaining permission. 

 

Personally, I tend to go with state or local parks because it's typically pretty easy to track down the right person.

 

But...does anyone know of any online tools available that are easy to use...and free?

 

An inexpensive way to locate a land owner is to ask other Geocachers about your intended cache placement area.  Especially since locals will explain why there are currently no caches there.  You may get permission, but also get a place that is historically just plain too massively muggled to sustain Geocaches.

 

One thing I do is, I find caches in some area, and if I wish to place a cache there, I check the cache pages for the permission information.  And I ask locals and reviewers at cache Events.  And a Geocaching Association in your area likely has a list of many properties with the placement requirements.

 

But for property lines, I check out the county tax assessor's web site.  Hunting maps have accurate boundary lines, but those maps often aren't free.  Once I have permission from a land owner to place caches on the property, the map boundaries show interesting spots to place more.  Unfortunately, the local county maps no longer show owner's names.  But that's how it goes in modern society.

 

Edited March 4 by kunarion

[geoawareUSA9]

I use regrid.com - it's a parcel map for the entire US.

[+JustFindingOurWay]

A couple sources have been mentioned already, i.e. county assessor parcel maps and regrid.com. Both of these work well for private property, but not so much for government owned property. The USGS Protected Area Database (https://maps.usgs.gov/padusdataexplorer/) does a great job for federal, and in some cases, state property. Be sure and check out the differences between the views provided by each tab. It has some quirks but its worth the time exploring it.

[geoawareUSA9]

On 3/5/2025 at 3:02 PM, JustFindingOurWay said:

Both of these work well for private property, but not so much for government owned property.

 

I find regrid usually works fine for government property, but I'll keep the USGS site in mind for those occasions when it may not.

[+JustFindingOurWay]

50 minutes ago, geoawareUSA9 said:

I find regrid usually works fine for government property,

You must be lucky enough to be in an area where the county assessor actually loads and documents the federal land in their county parcel system. Nearly all counties around here don't list the government land so it doesn't show in up regrid