You have found the official website for the Certified Federal Surveyors Program (CFedS). Co-administered by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), the Program provides extensive training for Professional Land Surveyors in dealing with federal survey processes both on and off Indian lands. This website contains all the information you need to learn about, register for, or utilize the CFedS Program. The CFedS Training Program was designed by Dennis Mouland and Ron Scherler. To learn more about them click on the Program Coordinators link. We invite you to explore this site.
But first, a little history...
The Fiduciary Trust Model (FTM) was approved by the Secretary of the Interior in 2004. The FTM was designed to respond to deficiencies in the Department of Interior's trust responsibilities, and to outline a plan for Indian Trust reform. At this time no direct control will be asserted on the selection of surveyors working in Indian Country, Tribes, BIA, and other federal agencies with land management responsibilities adjoining Indian Trust lands will be strongly encouraged to select surveyors from the CFedS roster. The Certified Federal Surveyor Program (CFedS) is one of four specific action items approved in the cadastral component of that Model. It consists of training and testing packages to be offered to private land surveyors to elevate knowledge and skills for providing cadastral services on trust lands. The Program will assist BLM in aggressively pursuing the cadastral survey-related needs in Indian Country.
The CFedS training is designed to cover the following 21 competencies:
- History of the PLSS
- History of Title and General History
- Survey Records
- Title Records
- Administration
- Concepts and Origin of PLSS Federal Boundary Law
- General Concepts and Origin of Indian Boundary Law
- Concepts of Title and Property Rights
- Concepts of Legal Land Descriptions
- Definitions
- Records Utilization
- Types of Evidence
- Evaluation of Evidence and Corner Placement
- Restoration of Lost Corner Methods
- Restoration of Lost Corner Calculations
- Water Boundaries
- Subdivision of Fractional Sections
- Subdivision of Regular Sections
- General Subdivision of Sections
- Project Documentation/Preparation of the Survey Record
- Boundary Standards
- If you are an approved CFedS - click on the Login link to update your profile for the CFedS Roster.
- If you are currently in training - click on the Login to continue with your studies.
CFedS who graduated in September 2007 and February 2008 who attended the banquet
To read more about the 2008 banquet, click on the News.
