WaProspecting I realize you don't understand the context of what is happening with Land Matters and the prospecting community. You are new to this site and prospecting and I applaud your efforts to educate yourself. Your seeming obsession with having "better" information I'll chalk up to inexperience and youth, for now I'll give your hubris a free pass.
Here's some of the background of what you have walked into. Land Matters was started by concerned prospectors and mining professionals who were convinced the constant removal of publicly available information was a detriment to miners and prospectors. You were probably still in school when the BLM removed the working parts of the geocommunicator mapping system in 2011. The geocommunicator was your typical tiny barely functional government map but it had some critical information for prospectors and miners when it sometimes worked. Without things like mining claims mapping and case file access prospectors and miners had to turn to the, also barely functional, LR2000.
There were no visual mapping alternatives available and the unannounced removal of the geocommunicator functions simply predated the removal of the
National Atlas and it's 400 interactive map layers of information in 2014. Neither the geocommunicator nor the National Atlas functions were ever fully replaced despite hundreds of millions of dollars in program funds and years of promises.
After that things went rapidly downhill for the serious researcher. Various functional, but scattered, information sources were being closed down to provide a NEW IMPROVED! data access interface. The first effort at that unified data store can be seen at the
Data.gov site. Time on that site will leave you wondering where the actual data went, clearly not there despite a huge and ongoing budget. Next came the promise of a NEW IMPROVED! geocommunicator. Three years later we have the
Navigator data and mapping site as a replacement. Another worthless boondogle that provides none of the functionality of the previous geocommunicator even when you can get the page to load.
The LR2000 has also been revamped and IMPROVED! to the point of worthlessness. Many features and datasets are still missing from that web interface. The old geocommunicator and LR2000 were clunky and often offline but the NEW IMPROVED! replacements are even worse. The same researchers who used to complain about the barely functional geocommunicator and LR2000 now wish they had those horrible experiences to relive again. The replacement versions are really that bad. This has led to a new standard disclaimer for those "informational" websites:
At this time, the pages on this website are not 100% accessible.
Almost exactly 4 years ago a few of us held a meeting to see if we could find a way to provide the services prospectors, miners and land users had lost in the ongoing government assault on information access. Land Matters, the educational non profit charity, was born out of that effort and has grown in size and functionality every month since. Land Matters is driven by user needs so if you happen to see something "missing" from Land Matters it's a simple matter of contacting them and letting them know your needs. If enough people want a similar service the request becomes an action item and will eventually be included in the resources available on the Land Matters website.
Land Matters was started with a generous donation by one of the members here. This guy isn't known to toot his own horn so I'll do it for him. Bejay is a miner with 40+ years of successful gold mining experience. He knows his geology, techniques and equipment and shares his knowledge with all who are smart enough to ask. It was his donation that gave Land Matters the capital to get started. Bejay is the Chairman of the Board for the Land Matters Charity to this day. Former Olympic athlete, successful businessman and a nice guy with a lot of knowledge and a good heart.
Neither Bejay nor any staff of Land Matters is paid for their service. It's a volunteer organization that relies exclusively on donations from it's supporters. The average donation is about $30. There are no government funds provided or corporate grants. Land Matters doesn't have any advertising and doesn't track or share user information. Those supporters number in the hundreds on Tnet alone so when you criticize Land Matters efforts you might experience some backlash from the people who are helping to create this resource.
I'm a professional cartographer and researcher for the mining industry. I have a "day job" in mining. I'm also a volunteer for Land Matters. I did indeed design and code the mapping interface. Sometime when you get some more experience with mapping I'd be happy to explain to you the advantages of a true interactive mapping application. The Executive Director of Land Matters is a spatial database expert and a former forensic accountant for several large non profits. She isn't paid either even though her credentials have allowed her to perform as CFO for several large corporations and non profits. Land Matters has a great group of volunteers to help them including Landsmen, Mining Engineers, Surveyors and several degreed professionals. For all these people Land Matters is a labor of love.
Land Matters user base would probably surprise you. Among the millions of researchers who visit the site each year some of our biggest users are the Department of Interior, BLM, Forest Service, several highly ranked Universities, several large mining companies, State governments and many visitors from more than 100 countries. Land Matters is ranked in the top 1% of websites both in the U.S. and internationally. All that in less than 4 years online with an annual budget of less than $10,000.
Land Matters is far from being perfect. It is the most current information source for mining claims maps on the web and provides the only online resource that includes land management, PLSS, geology and much more critical information in one place.
Now you've learned a little more about Land Matters. Maybe that will help you understand why Land Matters has as it's core mission to inform and educate.
Heavy Pans
