Private Forest Lands Open to Public RecreationWeb mapping application

Launch Map See which private lands are open to the public for recreational purposes.

Through the Managed Forest Law (MFL) and Forest Crop Law (FCL) programs, some private forest lands are open to the public for recreational purposes. This web mapping tool can help you find which lands are now available.

What to expect

Once the web mapping tool is launched, a map of Wisconsin is displayed which displays MFL and FCL lands accessible to the public.

Screenshot: Zoomed in view of Wisconsin map.

- Public hunting, fishing, hiking, sight-seeing, and cross-country skiing (Open Managed Forest Law)
- Public hunting and fishing (Forest Crop Law)

All map points are approximate

The points on the map are approximate locations and do not represent the actual boundaries of MFL/FCL land open to the public. The points are most often located in the center of a “forty acre” square and indicate that there is MFL or FCL land open to public recreation within that “forty acre” square (also known as a quarter-quarter section).

You must click on a purple or red point to see the actual acreage of open land that is enrolled in either MFL or FCL, the landowner and the DNR contact. You are encouraged to contact DNR County Foresters or the landowner for specific location and public access information.

Screenshot: details that appear when a point on the map is clicked upon.

Helpful tips

• Pay attention to the “pop up” screens that appear and follow their directions.
• Click the points on the map for complete details (including contact information).
• Some points represent multiple landowners. Click the gold arrow at the top of the details panel to cycle through these landowners.
• Go to the Public Lands website for further information about recreational opportunities on public lands.

For more information about open lands listing and Tax Law programs

• The Tax Law programs
• Tax Law Lands Open to Public Recreation

Technical requirements

• Designed to work over a higher-speed internet connection (may be unusable over a dial-up connection).
• Optimized for Internet Explorer (IE) 8.0.
• JavaScript must be enabled in the browser.
• Browser zoom level must be set to 100% or less for the dialog boxes to work correctly.
• Functions on some mobile devices and tablets (see help documentation for details).

Map data updates

• Weekly:
• Landowner contact name, ownership type and landowner address
• DNR Forester’s name, phone number and email address
• Annually (around March):
• Points representing the approximate locations of lands open for public recreation
• Legal description of the property and parcel number (for those that exist)
• Number of acres enrolled as “Open to recreation”
• Municipality and county in which the land can be found
• Intermittently (see help documentation under Data Updates):
• Other features to help with general navigation (roads, aerial photographs, etc.)
• Approximate GIS representations of DNR Managed Lands, County Forests and Federal Lands

Contact information

For more information about the Private Forest Lands Open to Public Recreation web mapping application, please contact Chris Martin.

Launch Map See which private lands are open to the public for recreational purposes.