Home

Welcome to CFedS.org

The CFedS team is excited to bring you an all-new iteration of the Certified Federal Surveyor website, your destination for CFedS certification, CE credits and more...

Nationwide Network

Join licensed surveyors across the United States

Intensive Training

Our seven-course program is now offered fully online

Continuing Education

Delve deeper via additional learning opportunities

Continuing Education Credits

Successful registrants enjoy access to a range of continuing education credits that will bolster your knowledge of western surveying practice

$650

Continuing Education: Non-Rectangular Surveys

This course will assure legally defensible and accurate conduct of dependent resurveys of non-rectangular surveys, students will be able to collect and analyze survey evidence in a thorough and...

$275

Continuing Education: Monumentation and the Corner Record

This course provides students with the knowledge to be able to research the record and perpetuate, re-monument or monument corners in accordance with the 2009 Manual of Surveying...

$275

Continuing Education: Special Boundary Problems

This course will examine special boundary problems associated with multiple surveys along a common line. Three basic topics will be discussed: Corners established in a junior survey...

$275

Continuing Education: Intro to the Geographic Coordinate Database

This course is an Introduction to the Geographic Coordinate Database (GCDB). The origin and development will be discussed along with an...

$140.00

Continuing Education: The 2009 Manual of Surveying Instructions

The CFedS Panel has just approved a new continuing education course designed to familiarize CFedS with the new edition of the Manual. The course...

$70.00

Continuing Education: Tussio 37 IBLA 135

The CFedS Panel has approved a new continuing education course designed to familiarize CFedS with several key IBLA decisions. The course will consist of the following elements...

$140.00

Continuing Education: Stoddard Jacobsen and Robert C. Downer

The CFedS Panel has approved a new continuing education course designed to familiarize CFedS with several key IBLA decisions. The course will...

$70.00

Continuing Education: Longview Fibre Co. 135 IBLA 170

The CFedS Panel has approved a new continuing education course designed to familiarize CFedS with several key IBLA decisions. The course will...

$70.00

Continuing Education: Delzell 158 IBLA 238

The CFedS Panel has approved several courses designed to familiarize CFedS with key IBLA decisions. The course will consist of the following elements...

$140.00

Continuing Education: Hillstrom 180 IBLA 388

on the "relation to know corners" when determining if a corner is lost or obliterated. The case involves certain county road survey records discovered nearly 10 years after the BLM survey...

$70.00

Continuing Education: William D. Brown 137 IBLA 31

The CFedS Panel has approved several courses designed to familiarize CFedS with key IBLA decisions. The course will consist of the following elements...

$140.00

Continuing Education: The Landslide Report

The CFedS Panel has approved several courses designed to familiarize CFedS with key IBLA decisions. The course will consist of the following elements: Read The Landslide Report, by...

$70.00

Continuing Education: Specifications for Descriptions of Land

(2015) which contains the Department of the Interior's latest requirements for various types of land descriptions. Read Specifications for Descriptions...

$70.00

Continuing Education: Hasenyager 176 IBLA 252

The case involves original corners recovered 20+ years after the corners had been determined lost and reestablished by proportionate measurement in an official survey. Upon completion of this course...

$125.00

Continuing Education: Swamp Land Grants, Omitted Area and Island Surveys

This course provides students with a case study on non-substantial accretion and the subdivision of fractional sections that involves using their knowledge, experience...

$70.00

Continuing Education: Accretions in the Public Land Survey System

This course provides students with a case study on non-substantial accretion and the subdivision of fractional sections.

$70.00

Continuing Education: Avulsions in the Public Land Survey System

This course provides students with a case study that examines the division of the bed of the abandoned channel of a non-navigable river.

$70.00

Continuing Education: Relictions in the Public Land Survey System

This course provides students with a case study that examines a relicted lake and the available apportionment methods.

$275.00

Continuing Education: Standards for Boundary Evidence (SBE)

Standards for Boundary Evidence (SBE) is a Department of the Interior (DOI) process where certain transactions are reviewed by land surveyors to identify possible boundary problems, and help managers avoid or fix them.

The United States' pre-eminent public and tribal land survey certification since 2005

Our unique seven-course training program was developed for licensed surveyors looking to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for providing cadastral services on federal trust lands.

Timothy W. Burch, PLS,
Executive Director of NSPS

Working on or near public and tribal lands requires special knowledge only a licensed land surveyor can possess. CFedS certification speaks to your professional abilities.

A roster of active CFedS registrants is maintained on this website, readily available to those in need of land surveying services on or near public and/or tribal lands.

Certified Federal Surveyors are a premier group of professional land surveyors engaged at the highest levels both locally and nationally. Share and stay up to date.

Industry Partners

What Kind of Land Surveyor Becomes a CFedS?

"The program will challenge you to learn something new about Native Americans and Indigenous People. Even if you don’t have any Federal Trust Lands near you, the procedural background is fascinating."
Dominica VanKoten, PLS, Alaska
Chief Cadastral Surveyor, BLM
"I am pleased to have taken the course. My surveying will be better for it. Many of the nuances of performing surveys according to “The Manual” are clarified now, much to my satisfaction." 
J. Anthony Cavell, PLS, CFedS
From Baton Rouge, Louisiana
"The CFedS program trains surveyors to deal with the unique problems found on Native American lands. Fractionated ownership of Native land titles, checkerboard ownership patterns and loss of access to sacred sites are just a few of the issues."
Glen W. Thurow, PLS, CFedS
From Albuquerque, New Mexico
"CFedS gave me the chance to coordinate with new agencies, design maps according to federal regulations and become immersed in native culture. The background and education that I received on the US Public Land Survey System alone is priceless."
Emily Pierce, PLS, CFedS
From Madison, Wisconsin