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OR Land Surveyor study materials
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OR Land Surveyor: Principles and Practice of Surveying

OR Land Surveyor · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Principles and Practice of Surveying

This domain tests how Oregon land surveyors locate and defend property boundaries: federal PLSS retracement, evidence hierarchy, water-boundary rules, and Oregon minimum standards. Expect questions that ask what controls when record calls, monuments, and occupancy disagree.

Core rules

  • Oregon is a PLSS state, so federal township and section plats form the framework.
  • The original federal survey monument is the best evidence of the original corner. Later plats, fences, and measurements do not move it.
  • Retracement is not resurvey: recover and follow the original location; do not create new boundaries.
  • Evidence hierarchy: original monuments > original GLO record calls > later monuments/plats > occupancy > measurement. Use proportionate methods only when a corner is truly lost.
  • Original GLO record calls include bearing trees, distances, and topographic calls; they are evidence, not mere measurements.
  • In Oregon, meander lines are not property boundaries; for navigable waters the state generally holds title to the ordinary high water mark, while non-navigable streams generally run to the thread of the stream, subject to Oregon law.
  • Follow Oregon minimum standards for boundary surveys: research, field evidence, monumentation, and map content.

Worked example

A GLO plat calls 40.00 chains east between original corners. You find the original west corner with bearing trees; the east corner is obliterated. A fence lies 40.25 chains east. The fence is occupancy, not the corner. Because the east corner is obliterated-not lost-you reestablish it from original evidence and record calls. If it were truly lost, you would use proportion between accepted original corners. The 0.25-chain difference (16.5 ft) does not justify holding the fence.

Traps

Holding a long-standing fence over an original monument; treating a meander line as a water boundary; calling a corner lost when evidence exists; using record distance over a found monument; ignoring Oregon minimum standards and water-boundary rules.