Federal Land Pack: 15 Federal Layers for Any PLSS Section

A buyer looking at a section of rangeland in eastern Oregon usually has the same five questions before the first call to a title company: who manages the land around it, whether anyone holds a lease or claim on it, whether it floods, what the soil is, and whether the public can reach it. Each answer lives on a different federal website. The Federal Land pack puts them in one parcel report keyed to the PLSS legal description you already have.

What the pack is

The Federal Land pack is a data-pack add-on for the Pro and Business plans. It adds a Federal Land section to the parcel report for any PLSS tract: 15 layers from seven federal agencies, clipped to the section you look up.

The Land tab also shows a card of nearby parks and protected areas (NPS, USFS and state parks within 10 km of the tract).

Who it is for

• Land and ranch buyers checking surface ownership, public access and flood exposure before an offer.
• Farmland lenders and rural appraisers who need soils, prime farmland, crop history and flood status as an early read on collateral.
• Renewable developers screening sites for critical habitat, wetlands, wildfire risk, slope and existing federal rights-of-way.
• Title examiners and landmen who want the BLM lease, right-of-way and mining claim records on a tract before ordering abstracts.

Pro map overlays vs pack-only report layers

Two of the 15 layers also exist as map overlays, and those come with the Pro plan, no pack required. Open the Layers button on the map and look in the Built-in group for Federal Land (SMA), colored by managing agency, and BLM Mining Claims, colored by case type.

The other 13 layers are report-only. There is no map overlay for flood zones, wetlands, soils, crop history or wildfire. That is deliberate: the pack clips each dataset to your section and reports acres inside it, which is a more useful answer than a colored polygon you have to measure yourself. The USGS orphaned wells layer does have a map overlay, but it belongs to the Energy pack.

To see where the BLM records concentrate before you pick a tract, the Federal Land hub lists mining claim, lease, right-of-way and orphaned well counts by state and county.

Where to find it in the app

1. Search for a PLSS description on the map and click Report on the result, or click a tract on the map. The parcel report opens in the sidebar.
2. Open the Land tab. It starts with a pre-screen disclaimer, a status row (flood, wetlands, habitat, fire) and colored flags, then cards for flood, wetlands, critical habitat, wildfire, soils, crop history, BLM surface and public access, elevation and orphaned wells, and nearby parks.
3. For every layer listed record by record, including the BLM leases, rights-of-way and mining claims, open the Land Report workbench at /app/report and enter the same description.
4. Export with the Report PDF button in the sidebar footer. If you hold more than one pack, it becomes the Combined Report PDF.

Without the pack, any signed-in user still sees how many records each layer holds for the tract. The records themselves need the pack. See parcel reports for how tabs, counts and PDFs work across all packs.

What a report covers

A section, quarter-quarter or government lot is reported on its own footprint, so a 40-acre quarter-quarter gets a 40-acre report. A quarter section such as NW 14 runs on its containing section, with a note saying so. A description that matches several tracts, usually because the principal meridian is missing, returns a list of candidates to pick from.

Worked example

A buyer is looking at NW 9 40S 38E Willamette Meridian, a quarter section in Harney County, Oregon.

1. Paste the description and open the report. Because NW 9 is a quarter section, the Land tab notes that it reports on 9 40S 38E Willamette Meridian, the full section.
2. Read the status row first. The flood value is the dominant FEMA zone by acres in the section. The fire value is the Wildfire Risk to Communities band.
3. Check BLM surface and public access. A BLM surface agency with a PLAD entry means documented public access to the federal ground. "None" in PLAD leaves legal access as a question for the title work.
4. Switch to /app/report for the BLM record lists. A mining claim or right-of-way row gives you a serial or case number to request from BLM.
5. Download the PDF as the screening record.

The detail on reading each environmental card is in the environmental screen guide. The BLM records are covered in the BLM records guide.

Limits

• It is not a survey, an appraisal or a Phase I ESA. The report is a pre-screen built from official public records. It does not meet ASTM E1527-21 due diligence requirements, and Township America is not a Qualified Environmental Professional.
• Coverage varies by dataset. A layer with no data anywhere in our copy shows a gray "not loaded" flag instead of green, and some parcels return no soils or crop data. An empty card is not an all-clear.
• Records reflect the agency data as loaded. For anything that decides a closing, a loan or a permit, confirm with the source agency.

FAQ

Do I need the Federal Land pack to see BLM surface management on the map?

No. The Federal Land (SMA) and BLM Mining Claims overlays come with the Pro plan. The pack adds the parcel report, where those layers and 13 others are clipped to your section.

Can I use the pack on a Texas property?

Not for the Texas abstract grid. Texas never used PLSS. A Texas abstract report comes with the Texas pack, which includes flood, wetlands, soils, critical habitat, wildfire and elevation alongside the Texas state and RRC layers.

Does every lookup use one of my monthly reports?

Only a report that resolves to a tract. A typo, a miss, or a description that returns a list of candidates is not counted. Allowances by plan, and the pack trial offered at Pro and Business checkout, are on the pricing page.