Locating a property using Alaska’s Public Land Survey System (PLSS) in ArcMap.

1). A property or study site with a known legal description can be located quickly in ArcMap using Alaska’s statewide section grid.  Click on the add-data button and navigate to the cadastral sub-folder of  F:/geodata.  Select the theme “sections_a_ak.shp” and click Add.

2). Once the theme has finish drawing, click on the search tool (binoculars ).  In the Find dialog box type a complete legal description for the location. A complete legal description includes the Meridian, the Township & Range descriptor, and the Section number.  It should look something like “S017N002W33”.  Choose   “sections_a_ak” from the In dropdown list.  Check the button “In fields” and select MTRS from the dropdown choice list.  Finally click the Find button.

3). When the search has completed, results appear in a window below the initial search parameters. Right click on the feature(s) listed in the results window and choose either select feature or zoom to feature.

4). At this point the selected feature can be copied and pasted into another theme such as planned land unit or clu layer. The search tool can also be used in a similar fashion with any of the Borough parcel maps to select and zoom to a parcel boundary provided you know the owners name.

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