This profession was one that I was in complete ignorance of until U.S. Fish & Wildlife 'Service' included my home in a Study Area and Project to create a Federal wildlife area in Ohio. During the period in which I and my neighbors was playing 'catch up' and learning all things possible about our land and water -- why a wildlife refuge was NOT the 'highest and best use' of our area -- a surveyor attended one of the strategy meetings that we were having.

Rodger Baker had been surveying land and water -- in over a half-dozen states -- almost as long as I'd been in existence, and he had amassed an amazing amount of knowledge! From the realization that we were just one short mile from a major Midwestern earthquake fault to the scope of the underground river that flowed just eleven feet below our feet, Rodger educated us about the place that we call home.

He had an extensive collection of charts, maps, diagrams, graphs, and photos, showing the effect that a 'sink' had on a freshwater supply that was flowing beneath, and illustrated with simple but factual explanations why restoring a stagnant 'wetland' where we have a 200-year production agriculture panorama, is not good for either flora or fauna.

The knowledge that a competent and astute surveyor can bring to the property rights arena is almost beyond the imagination.

This button at www.propertyrightsresearch.org  will archive articles and essays by those who have helped make private ownership of land in America possible, and who continue to do their best to make it viable in the future. Thanks to the surveyors!

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