FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool
Launch Discovery Tool Discovery Tool Video Tutorial Discovery Tool PDF Instructions
To use the FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool requires Google Earth to be installed on your computer. You need to be familiar with Google Earth and its tutorials, particularly the navigation tutorial.
The FrontCounter BC Discovery Tool is designed to help you view an area of land within the Province of British Columbia to determine basic information on how the land is currently being used. The information can be used to assist you in choosing an appropriate application area for your needs.
For example, privately held lands, Provincial Parks, National Parks or First Nations Reserves are some of the highly constrained lands in their potential for Crown authorizations and will require you to contact FrontCounter BC to determine whether your proposed activity is permissible. Avoiding highly constrained lands when seeking potential candidate areas for your proposed application may improve your likelihood of success.
You can use this tool in a variety of ways:
- To discover general land use: a colour legend will appear when you click on each layer name;
- To create your Area of Interest (as a placemark, path or polygon) in the correct location you are interested in;
- To look at your Area of Interest in relation to other land interests to see if it is available and compatible, and;
- To create an electronic file of your Area of Interest that can be submitted with your electronic application.
DISCLAIMER: This tool does not show all interests, you should contact FrontCounter BC to see if other interests exist that may conflict with your application before submitting it. Your saved geomark can be emailed to FrontCounterBC@gov.bc.ca prior to submission for this purpose.
Updates November 2017
- Discovery Tool will now work with older versions of Google Earth as well as the newest version of Google Earth Pro now a (free download)
- Colours and styles associated with the layers are generally lighter
- The Search function on the sidebar now has been moved from the bottom to the top
- Quick base has no labels as this function is not supported
- First Nations Consultation Areas report - previously a pop up report was produced inside the Discovery Tool; the current version requires you click on the First Nations tab on the sidebar, and it will direct the user to the Consultative Areas database (CAD) where an SOE report can be run to get the same information
| Google Earth (pre-download versions) | Yes |
| Google Earth (new browser based version) | No |
| Google Earth Pro (all versions, including newest version, which is a free download) | Yes |
Troubleshooting Discovery Tool Errors
If you are unable to view the private and crown land ownership layers, please ensure you have the following Google Earth layers turned off:
- Explore the Ocean layer in the Ocean Layer Section
- Google Earth Community layer in the Gallery Layer Section
- Terrain Layer
If that does not resolve the issue, please revert back to an older version of Google Earth.
If you have been using the Discovery Tool prior to November 2017, follow the steps below to clear out your Google Earth cache and add the latest version of the Discovery Tool:
- Load Google Earth
- On the menu bar, First click on "File" and then click on "Server Logout" option.
- On the menu bar, First click on "Tools" then click on "Options". On the pop up window click "Cache" tab and click on "Delete Cache File" button.
- On the menu bar, First click on "File" and then click on "Server Login" option.
- Exit Google Earth
- On the FCBC Discovery Tool Page, click on "Launch Discovery Tool" button and load the new KML.
- If you previously had your FrontCounter BC KML saved in My Places on Google Earth, you may need to right-click on that layer name and choose Refresh to see the updated information.
