Basic operation
You can navigate the map by doing a specific place search or using the interface icons. Once you have found your project area on the map, you can use the delineate tool to define your project site(s). Note that the system cannot accept overlapping sites, so draw carefully when sites are near each other. When you are finished, click the
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Place searches
Use the Place input box below the map to quickly display a specific location:- By public land survey (PLS): Enter the township, range and, optionally, the section you'd like to display - format is TxxxRxxSx (e.g., T137R44 or T137R44S5)
- By name: Enter the name or partial name of a of a point of interest (i.e., lake, city, WMA)
- By type: Select one of the options from the drop-down menu to narrow your search (e.g., name = Turtle / type = lake)
- By coordinate: Enter an x y pair, separated by a space - supported coordinate types are UTM (zone 15, nad83) and lon/lat
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Interface icons
To use the interface icons -![]() | Reset - Clicking on the icon resets the Recreation Compass to show the entire state. |
![]() | Zoom in - Clicking the icon increases the magnification of a specific area of the map. Use the Reposition tool to move to another area. |
![]() | Reposition - This icon is chosen by default and allows you to move to a different area of the map. Either hold down your mouse to drag the large map to a new position, or click on the smaller map (located in the lower right corner) to move to a specific area of the state. |
![]() | Zoom out - Clicking the icon decreases the magnification of the map. |
![]() | Delineate sites - Click this icon to activate it, then delineate one or more project sites on the map. Click once on the map to start a site, then move the mouse around the perimeter of the site, clicking points along the way. Double-click on the final point to finish the site delineation. Multiple sites may be delineated. Hint: For a more detailed site delineation, hold down both the shift key and the mouse button while dragging the mouse to "draw" the site boundary. This level of precision is generally not required, though. |
![]() | Delete last site - Clicking the icon deletes the last delineated site. You will be asked to confirm that this is what you want to do. |
Tips
- To zoom to a specific area, press the shift key and drag a box to cover that area
- If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, you can move it up and down to zoom in and out
- Place by name search tips:
- Put a ^ before a search term to ensure that it occurs at the beginning of a name (e.g., "^paul" will find Paul and exclude Saint Paul)
- Put a $ after a search term to ensure that it occurs at the end of a name (e.g., "paul$" will find Saint Paul and exclude Pauline)
- Put a ^ before and a $ after the search term for an exact match (e.g., "^Saint Paul$" will find Saint Paul only)
- To get a list of all matches for a given type set the type without a search term (e.g. city will return a link to all cities on the map)