Your mode (the pill at the top) picks a sensible set of layers, and remembers any changes you make for that mode. You can turn any layer on or off here.

Show the layers (off = a bare map, on = your mode's usual set) 3D terrain — the hills stand up and the map tilts, on the federal 30 m elevation model (works the phone harder)

Whose land is it

Private land (brown)Someone's. No camping, no hunting, no fires without the owner's say-so. Walk the line, not across it. Other public land (slate blue) — city, county or agencyOpen to walk, usually. Camping and hunting are that agency's call, not the province's — read the sign at the gate. Towns & cities (concrete grey-blue) — where it is built upThe streets are public; the lots are someone's. Nearly every town bans firing a gun inside it — check the bylaw. A plan to a spot in town drives you to the door. Crown land (green) — publicThe good stuff. Free camping up to 21 days, hunting and fishing in season with your licence, a fire outside a ban. Our best read of the province's maps, not a guarantee. Community forests (teal green)Managed Crown forest with its own rules — we looked each one up. Most allow hunting; camping varies; tap for the answer. Parks & conservation reservesTheir own rules. No free camping — book a site. Hunting is closed in most provincial parks and open in most conservation reserves; the card says which. The maps disagree (amber)Two government layers claim different things here. Treat it as unknown: no camp, no fire, ask before you hunt. First Nations reserve (slate grey)Not Crown land. Entry, camping and hunting are the First Nation's to grant — ask, and expect the answer to be no without a host. An animal on a hunting unit (zoomed out, Hunt only) That unit has a season for the animal you picked. It says the season is open there — not that the animal is standing there. Zoom in and the marks move to the ground that actually rates. Not lit yet (brown on the BushMap map; paler on Canada Topo and satellite, zoomed out) Outside Canada is another country's ground. The rest of Canada is ours and coming — Ontario is lit, and all of Québec with it: its own land, water and roads on the map, and its own zone, seasons and rules on a tap.

Across the river (Québec)

Zecs, wildlife reserves & community waters (ochre)Public land with a gate: you register, pay the day fee, and follow that territory's own rules. Tap and the card names the one you are standing in. Parks (plum) — Québec's, Canada's and the regional onesTheir own sites, booked ahead. Hunting is closed in a national park either side of the river. Ecological reserves, refuges & bird sanctuaries (pale blue)Protected. An ecological reserve needs a permit even to walk in; a refuge closes the hunting; a bird sanctuary closes the migratory birds and leaves the rest to the land under it. Outfitters with exclusive rights (rust)The hunting and the fishing belong to the outfitter's clients, and the one exclusive hunting territory holds its hunting the same way. Ask the outfitter before you camp. Category I land (violet)The land around a Cree, Inuit or Naskapi community, under the James Bay and Northern Québec agreements. It belongs to the community: you need their permission to go on it, and to camp, hunt or fish. James Bay and Northern Québec land: check the land category before you hunt or fish.The orange hatch is where the James Bay and Northern Québec agreements apply, and Category I, II and III land all lie inside it. Category I land is drawn in violet where it is mapped; the map cannot tell Category II land from Category III yet. Territories with rules of their own (sand)A forest station, a teaching forest, the marine park and a territory under a special agreement with a First Nation. BushMap holds no rules for them — check before you go.

The land colours above mean the same thing across the river — green is public, brown is not shown public — but the RULES are Québec's, not Ontario's: seven months in one spot rather than 21 days, and a zec or a reserve has its own gate. Tap the ground and the card answers with Québec's.

All of Québec answers on a tap: the zone, what is open today and its limits everywhere, and whose ground it is wherever Québec's public-land map reaches, which is most of the south. Its camp and hunting spots are rated the way Ontario's are, from the Outaouais to the treeline, and its fishing water right up to Ungava.

Spots

Camp spots — rated on Crown land away from private lines; tap Rate this area to see the best in view Shoreline camp spots — rated stretches of Crown shore; tap any shore to read it, or Rate this area to pin the best in view Amber tent — a camp spot on an outfitter's ground: ask the outfitter. Rated spots — tap Rate this area and the best spots in view get stars: three for 9–10 out of 10, two for 7–8, one for 6 or less. The best one is bigger. Teal fish pin with a plus — Ontario stocks this water (Fish mode) Your saved spots Your waypoints — tree stand, trail camera, bait, blind, truck, camp, portage, fishing spot Your recorded tracks (purple) Gear & rentals — binoculars for guns & ammo, a hook for bait & tackle, a pack for outdoor gear, paddles for canoe & kayak rental, a bike for bike rental, a quad for ATV & snowmobile rental Only show camp spots rated 1 out of 10 or better

Getting around

Bush roads — the Ministry's forest roads, dotted like trails Gates & road blocks Boat launches Trails, portages and bush tracks — 160,000 of them. White dots, the same for every trail and bush road. Portages in rust, with their length Land shading — every colour steps darker in the valleys and lighter on the heights, in 40 m contour bands (federal elevation data; BushMap map only) Land contours every 20 m, heavier every 100 m, with heights when you're close (federal elevation data) Lake depth — the water darkens a step per contour band toward the holes, with the depth lines and their numbers when you're close (surveyed lakes only) Depth shading on big rivers and charted waters — federal charts, needs a signal Wetlands from the provincial survey — marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Go routes around them Old burns — where fire went through, and when. Three to fifteen years on is the best browse there is Treaty areas — whose treaty land this is. The federal government's drawing of it, not a statement about rights Rivers & streams

Hunting & fishing

Hunting zone boundaries (WMU) Fishing zone boundaries (FMZ) No-hunting game preserves

Tap any lake to see what's in it and how deep it is. The cards name your hunting and fishing zones, and the Rules tab has their seasons and limits.

Offline

Save the area on screen

Move the map to the country you're headed for, then save it. The map, the land answers, camp spots, depths and the hunting and fishing info all come with you past cell service. Free while BushMap is in beta.

Settings

Tools

Open a GPS file

A GPS file (.gpx) is how Garmins, fish-finders and other map apps share tracks and waypoints. Open one here to see it on the map; export from Trips to send yours the other way.

About

BushMap gives its best read of the government maps — never a guarantee. No ads, no trackers.

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