onX Hunt Adds Monroe County, Wisconsin Fishing Easements to the App

onX recently partnered with the Monroe County Land Conservation Department in Wisconsin to add the county’s fishing easements to the onX Hunt app. The option to conveniently view this map data from home or in the field, far from cell service, makes it easier for anglers to access and enjoy 38 miles of the area’s celebrated trout streams while respecting private property boundaries.

“It’s been a pleasure working with the onX staff to highlight Monroe County fishing opportunities,” said Bob Micheel, Director of the Monroe County Land Conservation Department. “After one phone call and some data sharing over the course of a couple months, all users of onX Hunt now have access to the county’s abundant fishing easements.”

Monroe County, Wisconsin, falls within the greater “Driftless Area,” which straddles parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. The region, home to thick timber, steep hills and spring-fed, cold water streams, is one of the Midwest’s top trout fishing destinations. Southwestern Wisconsin alone boasts more than 13,000 miles of designated trout streams.

Although many of those streams are on private property, waterways in Wisconsin are public and can be accessed at most bridges via right of ways. Wading upstream for long distances to access prime fishing spots can be a challenge, especially without scaring away fish. Fishing easements, like those in Monroe County, permit public access within 33 feet of the stream’s edge and allow anglers to hike along streams without fear of trespassing. In return, landowners benefit from stream restoration funding.

The goal of the partnership between onX and Monroe County was to boost awareness of already available access to these local fishing easements. As the county works to put up physical fishing easement signage, onX gives any angler with a smartphone a simple way to view fishing easements when planning a trip or when streamside.

“We wanted to cover all types and ages of anglers with our outreach efforts – some like paper maps, some like computer maps, and some like apps like onX,” said Ben Anderson, Soil & Water Conservationist for the Monroe County Land Conservation Department. “I personally use onX for fishing as well as hunting, and their platform makes it easy to navigate and mark Waypoints on good fishing holes. We have a lot of areas that are out of cell phone range here in the Driftless, especially in the valleys where the trout streams are located. So having the offline capabilities in onX is very helpful for finding easements even if you are out of range.” Monroe County, Wisconsin, is just one part of a larger onX goal to increase visibility of fishing easements across the U.S. The onX Access and Stewardship GIS team encourages other counties to work with the company to add their fishing easements to the app. If groups are interested in integrating their own local fishing easements into onX Hunt, please email the onX Access and Stewardship GIS team at access@onxmaps.com