Lot in Cowichan Valley, Electoral Area F (PID 000-839-370)

Clear of steep slope and water setbacks

143.8 ha (77%)

In or within 30 m of mapped water

12%

Steeper than 30%, outside that strip

11%

15 to 30% slope

35%

On designated floodplain (counted as clear)

0%

Median slope

14%

Main slope direction

No main direction: the slopes face several ways; measured by us on NRCan's 30 m elevation model

Which way it faces

26% south (SE to SW), 12% north (NW to NE), 9% flat; the rest east or west

Terrain stability (Vancouver Island Geomorphology)

Over the lot, the Province's terrain stability mapping, mapped at 1:50,000 gives no stability class, so it says nothing either way

Karst-prone rock (the Province's reconnaissance map)

Not on the Province's karst map: the rock mapped under the area isn't one it rates as forming karst, at a scale of about 1:250,000

Estimated by us on Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model: each dot on the plan is one 30 m cell. Small banks, gullies and benches can be smoothed out, and on lots under a few hectares the edges count for a lot. Slopes over 30% usually need a geotechnical engineer's report to build on; 15 to 30% is buildable with more work.

Not counted: zoning setbacks from the lot lines, room for a septic field and well (the Septic section screens for a field), easements and rights of way, and the local government's own slope or hazard development permit areas. What you can build names them where the local government publishes its map. A surveyor and the local government confirm where you can build.

Dams nearby

None within 1 km on the Province's list of dams

Dikes nearby

None within 1 km on the Province's map of dikes and flood protection works

These maps were drawn mostly in the 1980s and 1990s and cover only some rivers and lakes. Not being on one doesn't mean the land can't flood: ask the local government whether it has newer flood mapping, and whether its bylaws set a flood construction level or floodplain setback here.

Fires on the parcel

1

Last burned on the parcel

1978

Each fire on the parcel

1978 (104 ha, lightning)

Fires within 2 km

2

Within 2 km in the last 30 years

0

Most recent nearby

1978 (104 ha, lightning)

Largest nearby

1923 (334 ha, caused by people)

Causes on record within 2 km

1 lightning, 1 caused by people

Natural fire regime (the Province's ecosystem map)

NDT2, infrequent stand-initiating events: forest where large fires replaced the stand about every 200 years on average, leaving wide even-aged stands with a few older trees that survived

Biogeoclimatic units over the lot

Coastal Western Hemlock zone, moist maritime subzone, Submontane variant (CWHmm1) and Coastal Western Hemlock zone, dry maritime subzone, Western variant (CWHdm2)

Laminated root rot on the lot (in Douglas-fir)

2018: trace over 4% of the lot

White pine blister rust on the lot (in western white pine)

2018: trace over 4% of the lot

Douglas-fir beetle on the lot (in Douglas-fir)

2018: trace over 4% of the lot

What the survey's classes mean

trees killed: very severe, 50% or more of the trees recently killed; severe, 30 to 49% of the trees recently killed; moderate, 11 to 29%; light, 1 to 10%; trace, under 1%

Surveys read

1999 to 2025, the Province's own; on the lot or within 1 km of its line

Fire perimeters mapped by the BC Wildfire Service since 1919, each with its size and the cause the Service recorded (lightning or people, sometimes unknown); older and small fires are less complete. Past fire is history, not a forecast: for insurance, ask about the fire protection area and the distance to the nearest fire hall.

The natural disturbance type is how the forest here burned, blew down or otherwise renewed itself before logging and fire suppression, from the Province's biogeoclimatic map and its Biodiversity Guidebook (1995). It describes the land around the lot over centuries, not the lot's own fire risk or the odds of a fire in any year; the Province's fire threat rating and fuel maps aren't open data. Our summary, checked 2026-10-11.

The lot crosses a line between two units on a map drawn at about 1:250,000, so either may describe it best (our reading).

The Province's Aerial Overview Survey is flown each summer from small planes 500 to 1,000 m up, sketching damaged stands on maps at 1:100,000 to 1:250,000: it gives the general location and rough extent of damage, not a ground count, and the Province says it isn't accurate enough to direct work on the ground. Most of the province is flown each year, but weather and smoke leave gaps, so a year with no record isn't a year with no damage. Each year's polygons record the trees recently killed (fading or red) or the foliage damaged that season, as the surveyors read it from the air; trees killed in earlier years aren't counted again, and dead trees may since have fallen, been logged or burned. Clumps of up to about 50 dead trees are mapped as spots, which aren't shown here. Our summary of the survey's standards and damage ratings, checked 2026-10-12.

Standing dead trees can be a cost to fell, add fuel for a fire, and change the view as they come down (our reading); a forester or certified arborist can say what stands on the lot now.

Wells within 2 km

0

Median depth

–

Median tested yield

–

Median water level below ground

–

Mapped aquifer under the lot

None mapped

Observation well 428

8.5 km from the lot's middle: water level stable or no clear trend over 2014 to 2023; stable or no clear trend over 2013 to 2023; water typically 44 m below ground in a well 87 m deep (the Province's trend, records to December 2023)

Groundwater tested 5 km away

At a sampled well, in aquifer 179: within Health Canada's limits, in mg/L: arsenic 0.000084, fluoride 0.032, manganese 0.00073, uranium 0.000023, nitrate (as nitrogen) 0.55, lead 0.000062; 1 sample, 2014. Not this lot's water: test your own well.

Groundwater tested 5 km away

At a sampled well, in aquifer 179: within Health Canada's limits, in mg/L: arsenic 0.00034, fluoride 0.098, manganese 0.091, uranium 0.00019, nitrate (as nitrogen) under detection, lead 0.000011; manganese over the 0.02 mg/L taste and staining level in its one sample; 1 sample, 2014. Not this lot's water: test your own well.

Groundwater tested 5.2 km away

At a sampled well, in aquifer 179: manganese 0.211 mg/L, over the 0.12 mg/L limit; within Health Canada's limits, in mg/L: arsenic 0.0017, fluoride 0.15, uranium 0.000005, nitrate (as nitrogen) under detection, lead 0.000006; 1 sample, 2014. Not this lot's water: test your own well.

More wells tested

18 more within 10 km in the Province's records, farther away

Drinking-water protection zone

None over the lot on the Province's map (it holds only the zones a water system's protection plan has mapped, so many wells and intakes have none on it)

Water systems' wells and intakes within 300 m

None on the Province's list

Community watershed

None over the lot on the Province's map

Water licences on springs and drinking-water diversions (300 m)

None within 300 m on the Province's open maps

Water use cut back for fish (temporary protection orders)

Koksilah watershed: 3 orders in 2019, 2021 and 2023, curtailing irrigation and industrial licences, up to 79 licences and 37 days at a time, and up to 111 wells and 29 groundwater users awaiting a licence. Fish protected: anadromous and resident trout, including steelhead; Coho salmon, steelhead and resident trout; steelhead (Rainbow) trout. No domestic users affected on any order. The latest: M249/2023, August 23, 2023 to September 27, 2023.

Neighbours' wells show what drillers found nearby, not what a new well here will find; many wells were never registered. For a property on a well, ask for a recent flow test and water quality test.

Productivity is how much water the aquifer gives up to wells; vulnerability is how easily a spill at the surface could reach it; both are the province's ratings for the whole aquifer, not this lot. Mapped aquifers cover mostly settled valleys: a lot outside every outline can still have groundwater. Confirm with a qualified hydrogeologist or registered well driller.

Observation wells are the Province's monitoring wells, their water level measured for years or decades. The trend is the Province's reading of one well's yearly levels: a decline of 3 to 10 cm a year that the record clearly shows is a moderate rate, 10 cm or more a large one, anything not clear is stable or no clear trend. It shows how the aquifer has behaved there, not what a well on this lot will give; confirm with a qualified hydrogeologist or registered well driller.

These are samples of raw water, before any treatment, from wells in the Province's environmental monitoring records since 2000: its observation wells and groundwater surveys, water systems' wells and other drinking-water wells; wells at landfills, mines and permit holders' works are left out. A result below the lab's detection limit counts at that limit. Lead mostly comes from a well's pipes and fittings rather than the aquifer. Groundwater changes over short distances and with depth, so a nearby well says what the aquifer can hold, not what a well on this lot gives. Bacteria aren't shown: they depend on how each well is built and kept.

Health Canada's Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality set the most a drinking water should hold: arsenic 0.010 mg/L, fluoride 1.5 mg/L, manganese 0.12 mg/L (and 0.02 mg/L for taste and for staining laundry and fixtures), uranium 0.02 mg/L, nitrate 10 mg/L as nitrogen (45 mg/L as nitrate) and lead 0.005 mg/L, with arsenic and lead kept as low as reasonably achievable. Our summary of Health Canada's summary table, read 2026-10-11.

Test your own well, for bacteria and these, at an accredited lab; your health authority can say which labs take samples from private wells.

These are the Province's open maps of licensed springs and of points where drinking water is diverted from a stream for two or more homes or a water system. Other water licences (a creek diverted for one house, irrigation, storage) are only in the Province's water rights databases, which aren't open data, so no licence listed here doesn't mean none is held on or near the lot (our reading). Ask the seller whether a water licence comes with the land, its number and what it allows, and look it up by number or by the creek's or spring's name in the Province's Water Licence Search; FrontCounter BC (1-877-855-3222) answers questions about licences.

When a stream's flow is or is likely to become so low that a fish population's survival may be threatened, the minister can order how much water may be taken from it, and from wells on an aquifer connected to it, and when, for a term the order sets, whatever the licences' priority dates. The minister must first give due consideration to the needs of agricultural users, and the order applies despite the rights any licence gives (Water Sustainability Act s. 88 (1) to (4)). The Province calls these temporary protection orders; the earliest on its map were made under the older Fish Protection Act, s. 9. Separately, where streams have fallen or may fall below their critical environmental flow thresholds, the minister can declare a significant water shortage for up to 90 days, or Cabinet with no such limit. The comptroller then sets the threshold for the streams that need it, and that flow comes ahead of every licence on the stream and its connected aquifers (ss. 22 (9), 86, 87). Section 88 itself makes no exception for household use, but every order on the Province's map lists no domestic users affected. When the Province enforces licences' priority, a home can't be stopped from taking up to 250 litres a day for drinking, cooking, sanitation and its household animals and pets (s. 22 (10), (11)). If the land comes with a water licence in one of these watersheds, ask the seller whether it was cut back in recent summers and how the land managed without it; each order on BC Laws names the streams, the uses and the term. Our summary of the Water Sustainability Act, read 2026-10-12.

Recorded water-supply wells within 30 m

None recorded within 30 m

Mapped water within 30 m

9 unnamed streams and 3 unnamed wetlands

Within the setbacks, under 15% slope (gravity fields, mounds and trenches)

85.7 ha (46%)

Within the setbacks, under 25% slope (mounds, at-grade beds and trenches)

129.1 ha (70%)

Within the setbacks, under 45% slope (trenches)

157.3 ha (85%)

Screening, not a site assessment: measured by us on the same elevation cells as the buildable area, against the separations in the Province's Sewerage System Standard Practice Manual: a field stays 30 m from a drinking-water well (60 to 90 m from a high-pumping one), 30 m from a lake, river or permanent stream (15 m from seasonal water and the sea), 7.5 m from a downslope drain or bank where effluent could break out, and, as a guideline, 3 m from the lot line. We use 30 m for every mapped stream. A gravity field isn't allowed on slopes over 15%, a mound or at-grade bed over 25%, and trenches over 45%.

Under the Sewerage System Regulation, only an Authorized Person (a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner or a professional engineer or geoscientist) may plan and install a system, and they file the plans with the regional health authority before work starts. They dig test pits to check the soil depth and the seasonal water table and measure how fast the soil drains, which no open map shows. Ask the seller for the filing and maintenance records of an existing system, and have it inspected.

Well locations in GWELLS are often approximate, and many wells were never registered: look for well caps on and next to the lot. Wells, water lines and septic fields on the neighbours' land count too.

If the lot is on a community sewer, none of this applies; ask the local government, which may also set larger setbacks or a minimum lot size for septic.

Cutblocks applied for (1 km)

0

Approved, not yet logged (1 km)

0

Logged in the last 5 years (1 km)

0

Old growth set aside from logging (1 km)

None within 1 km on the Province's map of legal old growth management areas

Trails on the Province's maps (1 km)

None within 1 km on the Province's recreation trail and historic trail maps, and no OpenStreetMap path along or across the lot

Woodlots and community forests (1 km)

Community forest agreement K1K, Crown land (Schedule B): along the lot line (our reading)

Tree farm licences (1 km)

None within 1 km on the Province's map of tree farm licences

Crown land applications (1 km)

None

Quarry, industry, energy or tower tenures (500 m)

None

Along the lot line

Private land along about 95% of the lot line (every side); land titled to the Province along about 5% of the lot line

Rights of way and easements drawn on the lot

None drawn on ParcelMap BC; a charge with no plan can still be on the title, so ask for it

Wildlife conservation land (1 km)

None within 1 km on the Province's map

Crown land reserves and notations (1 km)

Designated use area (Land Act s. 17) for a treaty, file 1414057: expires May 13, 2051, along the lot line (our reading)

Local development applications

Not covered here: we read applications only where the local government publishes them as open data (the CSRD, the City of Surrey, the City of Abbotsford and the District of Squamish). Ask the Cowichan Valley Regional District what's in progress on and near the lot

Crown range tenures (1 km)

None within 1 km on the Province's map

Guide outfitter territory

The lot is inside guiding territory 100G105 (Vancouver Island region) on the Province's map

Nearest power line (200 m)

None mapped within 200 m

Oil and gas pipelines (200 m)

None within 200 m on the BC Energy Regulator's permit map

Gravel pits, quarries and mine permits (2 km)

None within 2 km on the Province's map

Permitted discharges to air, water and land (2 km)

None on the Province's list

Military land (2 km)

None within 2 km on OpenStreetMap

Major projects in assessment (10 km)

None

Major projects approved (10 km)

None

Reviewed, no assessment needed (10 km)

None

Closed or not reviewable (10 km)

None

Cutblocks are from the province's forest tenure records, which cover Crown forest licences and woodlots, not logging on private land. Crown land applications are on the province's tenure register; the Applications, Comments and Reasons for Decision site takes public comments on them. Mineral and placer claims are in their own section above.

Some landscape units have no mapped areas and keep old forest by a share set in a provincial order instead, so none on the map doesn't mean the forest nearby can be logged. Our summary, read 2026-10-11.

A woodlot licence gives its holder the sole right to log the Crown land in it (Schedule B) for up to 20 years, and the holder is usually offered a replacement in the licence's tenth year (Forest Act ss. 45, 46); a community forest agreement or a First Nations woodland licence does the same for 25 to 99 years (ss. 43.3, 43.55). Logging there follows the licence's plan. Their cutblocks are in the counts above. Who holds a licence isn't shown here; the West Coast Natural Resource Region of the Ministry of Forests can say who to talk to. Our summary of the Forest Act and the regulation, read 2026-10-11.

Who owns the land beside the lot is ParcelMap BC's owner type for each parcel that shares the lot line (measured by us along the line); the open parcel map names no owners. Crown land beside a lot, with a title or without, can be logged, leased, grazed or roaded, and a view or trail across it isn't yours to keep; ask the natural resource district or FrontCounter BC. Land owned by the local government is often a park, a road allowance or a utility lot; ask the local government what it's for.

The Province can set Crown land aside for a purpose, such as a gravel source, a road, a communication site, recreation or a treaty. Cabinet can reserve it by order in council (Land Act s. 15); the minister can withdraw it from disposition for a time, a map reserve (s. 16), or designate it for one use, a designated use area, which withdraws it from any use that doesn't fit (s. 17). A notation of interest isn't a reserve: it marks another agency's interest, so that agency is asked before the Province decides an application there (our reading). While a reserve or map reserve stands, the Province may refuse even to receive an application for that land (s. 10 (3)), so buying a piece of it to add to a lot, or leasing it, most likely won't work (our reading); in a designated use area only a use that fits its purpose is weighed. The agency it's set aside for can be allowed to build there, such as a gravel pit or a road (ss. 15 (3), 16 (2)), and a reserve can be changed or cancelled (ss. 15 (5), 16 (4), 17 (3)). A reserve gives no date for when its purpose is used, if ever. Our summary of the Land Act, read 2026-10-12.

A guiding territory lets one guide outfitter take hunters for game in that area. It gives no right in wildlife and doesn't restrict anyone else's right to hunt (Wildlife Act s. 67); hunting over cultivated land needs the owner's consent (s. 39), and the Trespass Act governs who may come onto private land. Guided hunters may be on the Crown land nearby in season. Our summary of the Wildlife Act, read 2026-10-07.

Who holds a trapline or territory isn't shown here; the Province's regional Fish and Wildlife office can say who to talk to.

Major projects are those large enough to need a provincial environmental assessment: mines, power plants, pipelines, transmission lines, highways, ports, dams and resorts, among others. Each is on the Environmental Assessment Office's register at a single point, the location it gives for the project. A mine, pipeline, transmission line or road can reach well past that point, so a project listed 8 km away can still pass the lot, and one placed beyond 10 km isn't listed here. Each project's page on the EAO's site has its maps, documents and comment periods; distances are measured by us from the lot line to the point. Smaller projects (subdivisions, smaller pits and quarries, and other works under the assessment thresholds) aren't on this register.

Power lines are from two maps read together: the Province's map of high-voltage transmission lines (BC Hydro's, private and independent producers' lines), which leaves voltages out, and OpenStreetMap, where volunteers map lines and record the voltage where it's known. Smaller distribution lines along streets aren't included. Distances are measured by us from the lot line to the mapped line, which can sit some metres off the real one. The line's right of way, and what it lets the line's owner do on the land, is set by the easement on title, which is the definitive record: check it in the title search, and ask BC Hydro (or the line's owner) about clearances for building and trees.

At-risk species or ecosystems on the parcel

None recorded

Within 500 m

None recorded

Wide-ranging species mapped over it

None

Secured records in the wider area

No

Wildlife Habitat Area over the parcel

No

Ungulate winter range over the parcel

No

Proposed Wildlife Habitat Area over the parcel

No

Proposed ungulate winter range over the parcel

No

Federal critical habitat over the lot

Little Brown Myotis: somewhere in the 50 km square that takes in the lot, not mapped closer; Northern Myotis: somewhere in the 50 km square that takes in the lot, not mapped closer

Sensitive ecosystems mapped on the lot

Not mapped here: the lot isn't covered by any of the Province's sensitive ecosystem inventories (checked 2026-10-11)

Invasive plants recorded on the lot

None on the Province's list

Invasive plants recorded within 100 m

None on the Province's list

Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), 20% of the lot

Open coniferous forest of Douglas-fir (coast), western redcedar, western hemlock; air photos of 2014

Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), 16% of the lot

Dense coniferous forest of Douglas-fir (coast), amabilis fir, western redcedar; air photos of 2014

Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), 16% of the lot

Open coniferous forest of Douglas-fir (coast), western redcedar, amabilis fir; air photos of 2014

Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), the rest

48% of the lot in smaller stands on the inventory

Red-listed species are at risk of being lost from BC; Blue-listed are of special concern. A record shows where the species was found, sometimes decades ago; no record doesn't mean nothing lives here, since most land has never been surveyed.

Federal critical habitat is the habitat a recovery strategy or action plan under the Species at Risk Act says a listed species needs to survive or recover (ss. 2, 41). On federal land the Act protects it by order (s. 58). On private and provincial land the Act leans on provincial and local law first; the federal Cabinet can order it protected where that falls short (s. 61). The Act's bans on harming a listed species or its residence apply everywhere for aquatic species and migratory birds, and elsewhere on private land only under a federal order (ss. 32 to 34). Our summary, read 2026-10-12.

Critical habitat for some sensitive species is kept off the public map; Environment and Climate Change Canada's Species at Risk Public Registry has each species' recovery strategy.

Species at risk can still limit building through local environmental development permit areas: ask the local government before planning work.

The Province's records come from invasive plant surveys, mostly since 2022, along roads, trails and shores and wherever crews were sent; no record doesn't mean no invasive plants. A record marks where a plant was found that day; it may since have been treated.

The Province's Vegetation Resources Inventory maps forest and other land cover from air photos, reading each stand as one: its trees by share of the stand, the leading species' age and height projected forward each year from the photo year, and crown closure (the share of the ground the tree crowns cover). It is built to plan forestry across the landscape, not to describe one lot: a mapped stand can hold clearings, a house site or other trees, the figures on private land can rest on old photos, and a stand logged or cleared since may still be drawn as forest. Before counting on timber, clearing costs or how much fuel stands near a house, have a forester or arborist walk the lot. Our summary, checked 2026-10-18.

December 21 (shortest day)

7 h 30 min of possible direct sun; 8 h on open ground

March 21 (about the same on September 21)

11 h 10 min; 12 h on open ground

June 21 (longest day)

15 h; 16 h on open ground

Noon sun on December 21

18° above level; the hills due south rise to 1°, 14.7 km away

Highest hills in the winter sun's path

5° above level to the south-west, 4.9 km away

Measured at

The middle of the lot, ground at about 637 m, from head height

Solar panel output (south-facing, tilted at the latitude)

About 970 kWh a year for each kW of panels (December about 34), on Natural Resources Canada's 1998-2022 sunshine map; the sun on the panel's face is 3.54 kWh/m² a day over the year, 1.48 in December

Water the ground lets you see (16 km)

Tadjiss Lake to the southeast, from about 4.6 km away

Highest skyline

7° above level to the northeast, 1.5 km away

Named peaks in view (150 km)

Mount Brenton to the north, 20 km away (about 1,181 m); Mount Hall to the north, 22 km away (about 1,286 m)

Highest ground in view

About 1,629 m, to the south, 90 km away

Farthest ground in view

About 90 km to the south

Most relief in one direction

To the south: from about 499 m, 7.0 km away, up to about 1,629 m, 90 km away

Town centres in line of sight

None within 150 km, over the bare ground

City lights in direct line (150 km)

None over the bare ground: the lit towns within 150 km are behind the hills or the curve of the earth (our reading)

Computed by us from the terrain only: trees, buildings and cloud aren't counted, so the sun that reaches a window or a garden is often less. The hours are possible direct sun, counted from when the sun's centre clears the hills, at head height at the middle of the lot; another spot on a hillside lot can differ.

The horizon is read from Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model in 72 directions, out to 16 km: on its 30 m grid within 1.5 km, beyond that on a 120 m version of it, where single peaks can read a little lower than they are. The curve of the earth is taken into account.

The sun's path is from the standard solar position formulas. Hours are counted in sun time; clock times shift with daylight saving and with how far the lot is from its time zone's centre.

Check it on site: visit on a clear day in December or January, look at where the trees and buildings to the south fall, and ask neighbours when the sun leaves and comes back.

The panel output is our reading of Natural Resources Canada's figures: its map gives the sun reaching a south-facing panel tilted at the latitude, averaged over 1998-2022 on a grid of about 10 km, and we turn it into kWh for each kW of panels at the performance ratio its Photovoltaic Potential maps use (0.75: losses in heat, wiring, the inverter and dirt). The map is for an open sky: the hills around the lot, trees, buildings and snow on the panels aren't counted. The hills around this lot take about 6% of the direct sun on December 21 and about 6% on June 21 (our figure above), so a panel at the lot's middle would most likely make less than this, most of all in winter (our reading; the hills block direct sun, not all the light). A solar installer measures the roof or the spot itself.

What the ground allows you to see from head height at the middle of the lot, read by us on the same elevation model as the sun hours, out to 16 km: trees, buildings and the house's own spot and height aren't counted, so a view the ground allows can be hidden by the forest, and a second storey can see over a rise. Lakes and rivers are the Freshwater Atlas's; the sea is read where the elevation model sits at sea level.

Peaks, towns and the farthest ground are read by us out to 150 km on the same elevation model, coarser past 16 km (cells of 240 m to 60 km, 480 m beyond), with the curve of the earth and the usual bending of light: summits read lower than they are at that scale, so a peak only counts when it clears the ground before it, and one at the very edge of the skyline may be left out. It's what the bare ground allows on a perfectly clear day: haze, smoke, cloud, trees and buildings aren't counted. Peak names are BC Geographical Names'; peaks outside BC aren't named.

City lights in direct line are our reading: the satellite's lit cells (15 nW/cm²/sr and up, the brightness of a town centre or more) within 150 km, each named after the nearest town centre within 8 km, and a town counted when one of its brightest cells, taken 10 m above the ground, clears the bare ground before it on the same elevation model as the long view. It says where lights are in a straight line, not how bright they look: the glow a town throws over a ridge isn't modelled, so a town behind the hills can still light the sky above them, and haze, trees and buildings aren't counted.