Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

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SamPotter
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Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby SamPotter » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:12 am

This may be well known to some, but I'm sure not everyone knows this- I only just figured it out myself.

** Acreage is a 2-dimensional measurement of land area, meaning an acre of land in hill country has a heck of a lot more surface (read huntable) area than an acre of flat land.

I started thinking about this last fall while sitting in a tree at my friend's place in the Southern hills of Ohio. He owns something like 315 acres of pure hills. I always felt like it "hunted bigger" than 315 acres. Well, turns out that it's true. If someone actually measured the surface area of all the hills there I'd bet it would really be over 400 acres of huntable ground.

Maybe everyone else already knew this, but I consider myself a progressive farmer and pretty good outdoorsman and it took me until now to figure this out, so I thought I'd share.


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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby basspro05 » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:15 am

Yup its true. Learned this from a real estate agent a few years ago.

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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby SamPotter » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:16 am

basspro05 wrote:Yup its true. Learned this from a real estate agent a few years ago.

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Makes a difference when buying land for hunting purposes I'd bet...
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby PK_ » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:20 am

That is funny, I was literally just wondering about this the other day as I was researching a big piece of rural mountain property trying to figure out if those steep hills were working for me or against me… this is good stuff to know.
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby stash59 » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:31 am

Yes out in Montana two acreages are given on land contracts. The 2 deminsional acreage looking straight down on a parcel like a map showing the SECTIONS. Then the actual acreage following the undulations of the land.

I personally saw one with 930 2D acres that was almost 1300 3D acres.
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby SamPotter » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:33 am

stash59 wrote:Yes out in Montana two acreages are given on land contracts. The 2 deminsional acreage looking straight down on a parcel like a map showing the SECTIONS. Then the actual acreage following the undulations of the land.

I personally saw one with 930 2D acres that was almost 1300 3D acres.


That's really interesting. I wonder if you can get your hands on that info for land to the east? When they sell it by the acre, they still use the 2D acreage, correct?
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby SamPotter » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:34 am

PK_ wrote:That is funny, I was literally just wondering about this the other day as I was researching a big piece of rural mountain property trying to figure out if those steep hills were working for me or against me… this is good stuff to know.


Good, I don't feel so bad now.
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby stash59 » Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:54 am

I believe that the 2D measurement takes precident.

So even alot of public lands. Like National Forests. Give the 2D measurement. So 1000 acres of National Forest may actually 1/3 or more acreage 3 deminsionally than stated.

I believe alot of this has to do with the number of cow/calf units that are allowed on a piece when the private ranchers lease it for grazing.

Hilly ground will support more units than a flat piece all other things being equal.

Available timber in timber sales would also follow suit.
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby Zona » Wed Jan 13, 2016 12:58 pm

Well, I learned something new today.

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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby Buckshot20 » Wed Jan 13, 2016 1:29 pm

I've wondered that for years. I guess now I know

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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby SRWbowhunter » Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:01 pm

Zona wrote:Well, I learned something new today.

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x2
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby Ryan » Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:45 pm

This is news too me, good stuff to know

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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Thu Jan 14, 2016 2:11 am

Light dawns on Marblehead ;)
I also learned something today...
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby SEMObowhunter » Thu Jan 14, 2016 6:18 am

I graduated from College with a degree in Surveying and worked in the field for five years before starving out. Land is measured, bought, sold, etc. by the horizontal distance. This does not include elevation calculations. Basically you are looking at a flat plane with an elevation of zero. Land can be surveyed with elevation (vertical distance) but this is only used for topography. On a boundary survey you measure with X,Y coordinates, whether GPS or made up and these are just northing and easting coordinates. Elevation is measured with X,Y,Z coordinates. This gives you the northing, easting, and elevation on any shot taken. The topo maps we all use are generated from an airplane flying at a certain altitude, certain speed, and using a lens with a set magnification. They fly over the area taking pictures that overlap, these are then overlaid onto a map of the area, where known elevations with GPS coordinates have been located.

I did some aerial topo support for aircraft on a 300 square mile stretch along the Missouri River in central and western MO for the Omaha District of the Corps of Engineers. We had a grid of the whole area laid off in 3 mile by 3 mile grid and we located certain points on the ground, then the plane flew the whole area and they compared their data to ours. This was for an update to some top maps of the River levees and the surrounding area.
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Re: Important Fact About Acreage vs. Topography

Unread postby SamPotter » Thu Jan 14, 2016 6:35 am

SEMObowhunter wrote:I graduated from College with a degree in Surveying and worked in the field for five years before starving out. Land is measured, bought, sold, etc. by the horizontal distance. This does not include elevation calculations. Basically you are looking at a flat plane with an elevation of zero. Land can be surveyed with elevation (vertical distance) but this is only used for topography. On a boundary survey you measure with X,Y coordinates, whether GPS or made up and these are just northing and easting coordinates. Elevation is measured with X,Y,Z coordinates. This gives you the northing, easting, and elevation on any shot taken. The topo maps we all use are generated from an airplane flying at a certain altitude, certain speed, and using a lens with a set magnification. They fly over the area taking pictures that overlap, these are then overlaid onto a map of the area, where known elevations with GPS coordinates have been located.

I did some aerial topo support for aircraft on a 300 square mile stretch along the Missouri River in central and western MO for the Omaha District of the Corps of Engineers. We had a grid of the whole area laid off in 3 mile by 3 mile grid and we located certain points on the ground, then the plane flew the whole area and they compared their data to ours. This was for an update to some top maps of the River levees and the surrounding area.



This is another very interesting tidbit. I've often wondered how all the little land undulations were recorded, especially way out in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for chiming in SEMObowhunter!


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