Home Departments Land and Water Conservation Land Information Office

The Vernon County Land Information Office provides a wide range of land information related services to county departments & staff, private sector businesses, state and federal entities, local governmental units, and the general public.

The primary responsibilities of the Land Information Office are:

• To develop and maintain county Geographic Information System (GIS) data & systems
• To provide GIS training & support to county staff
• To coordinate county GIS projects & data acquisition
• To administer the county’s Public Land Survey System (PLSS) remonumentation program
• To provide support to the County Land Information Council

The Land Information Office and Land Information Program within the county are funded primarily through program and grant revenue provided by the county’s participation in the Wisconsin Land Information Program (WLIP). For more information about the current WLIP administered by the WI – Dept. of Administration, please visit the link referenced at left.

Wisconsin has recognized the need for and has been in the process of modernizing land records for more than thirty years. The underlying background on the need to modernize this information is documented extensively in the Larsen Report (1978) and the Final Report of the Wisconsin Land Records Committee: Modernizing Wisconsin’s Land Records (1987). Following these assessments, the Wisconsin Land Information Program was created by Wisconsin Acts 31 and 339 in 1989, which established criteria and a funding mechanism for land records modernization on many levels throughout the state. More recently, Act 20 in 2013, established increased funding levels and a priority to complete GIS based parcel mapping across the entire state.

The primary focus of the WLIP is to develop and maintain several “Foundational Elements” (i.e. base mapping, geographic reference framework, parcels, wetlands, soils, zoning, hydrography, transportation, utilities, administrative units, institutional arrangements, public access, and communication, education, and training) that are accurate, current, and readily available. Wisconsin Counties are the primary custodians for foundational elements such as tax parcels, PLSS corners, addressing, local roads, zoning, and local political districts.

Land Information and GIS Maps

Contacts: