The OFAH knows that anglers and hunters need access to current information about Crown Land for planning purposes and to ensure they are complying with the rules.
The Crown Land Use Policy Atlas (CLUPA) is an interactive online map that shows the permitted land uses (e.g. hunting, bait harvesting, mining) for Crown land in Ontario. This gives outdoor recreationalists the ability to search areas they wish to hunt, fish, and/or hike and locate parcels of Crown land that permit those activities. This feature is especially helpful for anglers and hunters who are limited in finding opportunities. It can be difficult to locate private land opportunities or Provincial Parks that permit hunting; therefore, Crown land is often the best option. The CLUPA allows users to narrow their search and see where hunting is and isn’t permitted, which is essential when planning longer trips.
A detailed look at how to use the CLUPA can be found on the OFAH website at www.ofah.org/fishing-hunting/lands-access/resources.
The CLUPA can be an excellent starting point when deciding where to hunt and fish. However, currently this information is only reliable for northern and central Ontario as the Crown land in southern Ontario currently does not show up on the CLUPA. This can be exceptionally frustrating for anglers and hunters, as public land opportunities are much more limited in southern Ontario. For years, the OFAH has been requesting improvements to the CLUPA to make it more complete and helpful to Ontario’s anglers and hunters by providing land use information for all Crown land in the province.
In 2016, the Federation also asked the government to include more updated information about access restrictions, such as marking decommissioned roads. Improving access of information through the CLUPA has been a long-standing advocacy priority for the OFAH.
There are multiple interactive maps that provide Ontarian’s with information, and the OFAH believes that they could be incorporated into a single tool for land information. By merging MNRF’s “Make a Topographic Map” online mapping application with the CLUPA, users would be able to create maps of Crown land areas with a much higher level of topographic detail than currently available through the CLUPA.
The changes that the OFAH is advocating for would greatly improve the functionality of the CLUPA for anglers and hunters wishing to get information and plan trips, and ultimately provide better service for Ontarians.
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