access to public information about land ownership

[Splintercat]

Back to the larger issue of public information that Karl mentions, I would go back a bit further in history, and suggest that the "movement" (if you want to call it that) of fee-for-service, user fees and other forms of cost recovery go back to 1980s conservative revolution, and the push privatization and across-the-board tax reduction at all levels (to some extent) of government. The revolutionaries quickly figured out that (1) the public hates paying taxes and (2) the public loves getting public services, so their math didn't add up. This was actually a surprise to many in the revolution, but led to the (in)famous "Two Christmases" strategy that is still powering our national politics today. Read David Stockman's memoirs for an insider view of what it was like to actually propose cuts in services to the very people who he thought were demanding them! Fascinating stuff, and he's since become a recovering trickle-down believer, so has some really thoughtful perspectives on the subject.

I've come to the conclusion that it isn't in the American psyche (at least in our time) to embrace simple, rational, general taxation for the services we expect an need as a society -- just witness the dysfunction in Washington today on whether we should maintain the national infrastructure, for example! We seem to have to be tricked (via lottery, user fees) or nickle-and-dimed (via sales tax, tolls) into paying for our public services. It's not a particularly efficient or equitable model, but one that we seem stuck with so long as the current left/right/Boomer-centric political dynamic endures.

Okay, so I'll get off my policy soapbox...

...but only to add that I really miss the BLM web tool for looking at public land ownership. I don't think it was killed for lack of funding, but rather, over legal concerns -- or possibly environmental. Googling around a bit, one core group who seem most annoyed are people looking to make mining claims on public land, for example. But it's too bad, since you know the information is out there -- just not easily accessible anymore. I used it quite often to navigate through checkerboard public/private lands.

Tom

[kepPNW]

I would go back a bit further in history, and suggest that the "movement" (if you want to call it that) of fee-for-service, user fees and other forms of cost recovery go back to 1980s conservative revolution

That sowed the seeds, no doubt! The folks who implemented it in the GIS community were almost universally of a different political persuasion, though. Unfortunately, they saw that movement as a means to an end -- funding their programs. And so it goes...

[Adventure Mapper]

...but only to add that I really miss the BLM web tool for looking at public land ownership. I don't think it was killed for lack of funding, but rather, over legal concerns -- or possibly environmental. Googling around a bit, one core group who seem most annoyed are people looking to make mining claims on public land, for example. But it's too bad, since you know the information is out there -- just not easily accessible anymore. I used it quite often to navigate through checkerboard public/private lands.

It is still possible to get this type of data from the BLM but it is in the form of an ESRI geodatabase. This can be cracked with ArcGIS and possibly QGIS (Last time I tried this it didn't work.) but that is a big pain for typical wilderness explorers. Also, it doesn't seem to agree with data from Skamania County that I believe is more reliable.

One of the points of the suit against Orange County CA is that it is not sufficient to make the data available in some form, for example, on paper one parcel at a time, it must be available in the form that the government uses. This keeps the government from maintaining "two sets of books" one for the public and one that they actually use. Unfortunately this can be a problem when the government uses tools that are not easily available to the general public. We can all help by supporting conservation organizations so they can buy the GIS tools they need to monitor government land managers.

[Chico]

FYI

ESRI has a program where you may purchase the full blown GIS package for a whopping $100. That is right, $100! The one and only catch is you can't use it for any commercial purpose. So if you want to download geodatabase files and convert them and upload for all to enjoy for free, go for it.

FYI - Joseph Elfelt mentioned me in other topics. I run the capitolriders.org web site here in Washington State.

Chico

[Joseph Elfelt]

...but only to add that I really miss the BLM web tool for looking at public land ownership. I don't think it was killed for lack of funding, but rather, over legal concerns -- or possibly environmental. Googling around a bit, one core group who seem most annoyed are people looking to make mining claims on public land, for example. But it's too bad, since you know the information is out there -- just not easily accessible anymore. I used it quite often to navigate through checkerboard public/private lands

Turns out that:
1. The feds have this ownership data online via a WMS (Web Mapping Service).
2. There will soon be a beta release of Gmap4 that will be able to display any WMS data.

When the beta goes 'live' I will post in the Gmap4 thread.

Joseph, the Gmap4 guy