Do you have a land plan? Owning several acres of land can be an immense undertaking. There are a lot of things that owners need to think about when owning a homestead on a large parcel of land. We have had to think about where our water and electricity is going to come from and where the home will be built. A garden is important, so placement in a sunny spot is crucial. Keeping livestock away from our natural spring is another must in the planning process. For me, an organized binder helped start me to keep track of all my ideas, thoughts, and visions for the property. Small pieces of paper and Post It notes started to mount up and become lost. Finally, I took up to the internet to help me and found the most fantastic website, MyLandPlan.org.
The My Land Plan website put together with the American Forest Foundation. I can’t tell you how wonderful I think this website is for us who own a dense forest parcel of land. But I will surely try.
Getting started on website
First of all, this website is free to set up an account. There is no money or credit card to put down. Once you have an account, you can find your land on Google maps with an address, save it, and name it.
A boundary line can be drawn on the saved map which helps outline what you have to work with. Along with the boundary, you can draw lines that may indicate streams, trails, driveways, roads, and fences. Placement of special objects that indicate home sites, sheds, hunting spots, barns, and entrances can also be laid out on the map. You can also make a shaded drawn area for thinks like orchards, crops, and gardens.
Finally, My Land Map gives even more detailed with sustaining healthy forests and wildlife habitats. There are special markings for prescribed burns, brush piles, stream or forest buffers, conservation easements areas, future tree planting or thinning, and cost share program as well. Plus, having the ability to add or delete all these plots with a click of a button makes this a great planning canvas.
What do you want to do with your land?
My Land Plan gives the user another great tool for their land. It poses the question, ‘what do you want to do with your land?’ Then it gives five categories; enjoy it, protect it, make it healthy, profit from it, and pass it on. In each category, the site gives several options for you to choose based on what you propose to do. For example, under ‘enjoy it’, there are options for wildlife watching, hiking, hunting, birding, fishing, etc. All these choices lead you to ideas, ways to start, and articles for you to save and read.
When all your future wants are picked out and understood, you can go on to the next area of the site. Saved goals from the previous categories added to your activities or goals list. You can go back to these pre-made goal lists anytime to remind yourself what you have meant to do.
Much like the goals, there is also a section called task list. These tasks are your to-do jobs planned. I use this section a lot and is my favorite part! It is a great way to reduce all the paper and post-it notes I had lying around. Categories, like ‘considering,’ ‘planning,’ ‘in progress,’ and ‘completed’ can be used for each task item. This will keep you on task with everything you want or later don’t want for the land.
Keep an account of your comings and goings
Another fantastic aspect of My Land Plan from the American Forest Foundation is the journal and history record–keeping. After every weekend we spend in the mountains I love to keep a journal entry. The entry helps to keep you on task of what you should be writing. It has a few categories like ‘Thoughts of the day’, ‘The weather was…’, ‘What I like most about the day’, ‘Family and friends I shared the day with…’, ‘What I noticed today in the woods…’, and ‘I want to remember…’. You can add photos that contribute to that journal entry as well.
Along the same lines as the journal, there is a history note area. I use this area for the basic history of the land that I know so far. This area is for keeping track of major events like the boundary survey and purchase date, building dates, and any past knowledge. Furthermore, you can upload any documents and pictures to the history section as well. I like to upload the boundary survey, purchase contract, deed, and any other contracts I will be making.
In conclusion, I highly recommend everyone who has land to set up an account with My Land Plan. It is a wealth of knowledge and helpful ideas for anyone to follow. They give you a great way to save documents, photos, future ideas, past events, thoughts, feelings, and maps of your lovely and cherished land. And don’t worry if you don’t have a forest. It works great for farms, prairies, meadows, suburbs, and anywhere you live.
Try it out and comment below about your thoughts and feelings.
