Utilizing Rice County Beacon to Learn About Your Land

A common thing the Rice SWCD office looks up for landowners is information about their land. What some do not know is that they can look at this information themselves through Rice County Beacon. 

Rice County Beacon is an online mapping and information tool from Rice County that is free to the public. It is known for viewing tax and parcel ownership information, but also provides information that can be used for conservation planning. In order to find information on a spot, there are two ways to get to the site. First, go into the search tab and search by address. The second way is to go to the map tab and zoom in to the area you want to look at. On the left-hand side of the screen, there will be a column with different layers that can be used on the map for information.

Landowners can use the Rice County Beacon website to look up natural resource information about their land.

Important layers to look at for conservation planning are under the “Water Resources” section. This layer shows the protected and intermittent streams through the DNR. This data is important to know to better inform if a state-mandated buffer or special permitting is needed through State agencies if any type of work is to be completed in that area. The ditches layer helps inform if the land is on a county ditch. The National Wetlands Inventory is a map showing wetland locations and classification defined by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.  This layer is a good starting point to indicate if there is a wetland on the site, however, further review for work should be looked into by the Rice SWCD and the Farm Service Agency. Lastly in this section is the Drinking Water Supply Management Area (DWSMA). This layer indicates all of the DWSMAs in Rice County. These areas sometime have special funds available for programs through the Rice SWCD office and have stricter fertilizer management through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

Landowners may also find useful information for conservation planning under the “Planning” section. The soils layer is a guide on the soil types for a site. More in-depth information can be found on Web Soil Survey if needed. The CPI (Crop Productivity Index) layer gives a general idea of how well the soil will perform growing crops. This is an average per county section, however, and not on individual parcels.

Once a site is found and the layers that are wanted are on the map, there are tools to use to help make a map to export. Measuring of area and length can be done, and there are markup tools available. Once completed, the map can be printed or saved as an image.

There are other services out there that can go into more detail on the different layers Beacon has to offer; however, it is a great resource for starting out exploring more about different parcels of land in Rice County. Find more information about how to use the Beacon tool and create maps at  https://www.ricecountymn.gov/183/Using-Maps.

 Emmie Scheffler is a District Technician with the Rice Soil & Water Conservation District and is the Plan Administrator for the Cannon River Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan. She also assists landowners and farmers with the implementation of soil erosion control practices and tree windbreaks. Contact Emmie with your questions at 507-332-5408.