In iOS version 2.18, the Mapping Package now includes a new Land Ownership & Indian Reserves map type. Compared to the old Private Land layer, it has some significant improvements:
- Shows even when zoomed out
- Shows more parcel types
- Allows querying the Parcel ID
You can select the new map type from the Map Options list the same way you would select Normal, Satellite, GeoBC etc.
The map is based on a snapshot of the ParcelMap BC government data set of interest to hunters. It shows a subset of surveyed land parcels colour coded by land ownership type – all land ownership types except Crown Provincial, Untitled Provincial, or Federal.
Federal parcels were excluded since most of them are Indian Reserve lands which are already shown from a different data source. However some Federal parcels such as airports may also be relevant for hunting. If you really need to show some of the omitted parcel types, you can add a custom map source with the following URLs for the provincial map server. These have the same limitations as the old layer – only show when zoomed in, and no labels/querying.
Federal:
https://openmaps.gov.bc.ca/geo/ows?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&CRS=EPSG%3A4326&LAYERS=pub%3AWHSE_CADASTRE.PMBC_PARCEL_FABRIC_POLY_FA_SVW&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&STYLES=6620&TRANSPARENT=TRUE
Untitled Provincial:
https://openmaps.gov.bc.ca/geo/ows?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&CRS=EPSG%3A4326&LAYERS=pub%3AWHSE_CADASTRE.PMBC_PARCEL_FABRIC_POLY_FA_SVW&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&STYLES=9588&TRANSPARENT=TRUE
Crown Provincial:
https://openmaps.gov.bc.ca/geo/ows?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&CRS=EPSG%3A4326&LAYERS=pub%3AWHSE_CADASTRE.PMBC_PARCEL_FABRIC_POLY_FA_SVW&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&STYLES=6618&TRANSPARENT=TRUE
When the new Land Ownership and Indian Reserves map layer is active, a single tap on the map will identify features (parks, rec sites, tracks etc.) near the tap as before, but will also send a query to the Hunt Buddy server to determine the land ownership type and survey parcel ID, if present, for the land parcel at that location. So there may be a short delay before the popup appears. Of course this also means the parcel query will not return any results if you have no Internet connection.
The single tap query will return parcel ownership and PID for all ownership types, not just the ones whose boundaries are shown. For more information about ownership types and PIDs, refer to this article from the BC LTSA.
The new tiles can be downloaded for offline use like other map types. Select the Land Ownership map type, choose “Get Maps” from the slide out menu, select the area to download.
A note about accuracy. The information is a snapshot of the government database. As such, it may become out of date and is not the final authority on anything. The positional accuracy seems pretty good except for the Indian Reserves. This is the official data set from the Government of Canada, and is the same one Apple Maps uses… but it appears to disagree with the ParcelMap data by as much as 150m in some places. Please verify boundaries on the ground! Again, this map is not a final authority about anything, but should get you pointed in the right direction.