Where this map comes from

Last updated 15 August 2026

Upland Maps is not a government app

Upland Maps is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Wisconsin Department of Administration, the USGS or any other agency. Those agencies publish the data; this app only draws it. Where this map and an agency disagree, the agency is right — and for anything that decides where you may legally hunt, check the source below before you walk in.

We are four hunters in northern Wisconsin. Nothing here is an official record, and the map should not be the last word on a boundary you are about to cross.

Land and ownership

Public hunting land — state, county and federal.
The edges are the DNR's, and the DNR draws them by dissolving forest stand inventory rather than from the deed — its own record of this layer says "dissolved from WisFIRS stands". A stand edge is where the timber changes, not where the title ends, so the line can sit tens of metres off a fence or a road and will not always agree with other maps of the same forest. Close to a boundary, treat it as an indication and not a survey.
Wisconsin DNR, Public Access Lands — dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/lands

Closed areas and game refuges. The zones inside DNR properties that are closed to hunting or open only with conditions, with the dates each applies and the administrative rule it comes from. The map quotes the DNR's wording rather than paraphrasing it. A zone whose dates the DNR gives only on its property map is drawn as in force at all times. Posted signs and the property map govern.
Wisconsin DNR, Public Access Lands viewer — dnrmaps.wi.gov/H5/?Viewer=Public_Access_Lands

Game management zones. Deer management units and zones, and the turkey, bear, ruffed grouse, duck and goose zones, as the DNR draws them, with the DNR's own names. The zone tells you which season you are in; the season dates and permits themselves are in the current regulations, which govern.
Wisconsin DNR, hunting — dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/hunt

County forest boundaries. Same stand-derived edges as above. Measured against the DNR source, the app draws them to within a quarter of a metre — so where this disagrees with a street map, the difference is between the two surveys rather than something the app has done to them.
Wisconsin DNR Open Data Portal — data-wi-dnr.opendata.arcgis.com

Managed Forest Law — private timber opened to the public.
Wisconsin DNR, Managed Forest Law — dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/ForestLandowners/mfl

Tax parcel boundaries and the owner of record.
Wisconsin Department of Administration, Statewide Parcel Map Initiative — doa.wi.gov/Pages/LocalGovtsGrants/Parcel-Initiative.aspx

Habitat and survey

Young aspen and lowland brush.
Wisconsin DNR, WisFIRS forest inventory — dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/forestmanagement/wisfirsintro

Timber cuts on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. The Forest Service's own record of each harvest, with the year it was completed; the map shows the regeneration cuts — clearcut, coppice, shelterwood and seed-tree removals — and not thinnings, which leave the stand standing. Federal ground only. The record is nearly complete from 2015 and thin before 2011: the Forest Service drew boundaries as it went, and most older cuts have none to show. Public domain.
USDA Forest Service, FACTS activity records — data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/edw/datasets.php

Ruffed grouse drumming survey counts. The numbers are the DNR's, not ours, and we deliberately link the report rather than summarising it — a statistic we paraphrase here goes stale every spring on a map people plan hunts from.
Wisconsin DNR wildlife reports — dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/reports

Base maps

Aerial imagery.
USGS, The National Map — apps.nationalmap.gov/services

Elevation contours.
NASA / USGS, SRTM — earthdata.nasa.gov/data/instruments/srtm

Street and topographic maps, roads, and place search.
© OpenStreetMap contributors, used under the Open Database Licence — openstreetmap.org/copyright

In the app

The same list, with the same links, is in the application: open the layers panel and tap Data sources at the foot of it, or find Sources in the account panel.