It’s never been easier to plan a hunting trip, or pre-season scout for that matter. Internet resources, coupled with GPS technology, can reduce the legwork of any hunting excursion to new or unfamiliar areas.

Consider the trip I returned from recently, a week-long hunt in northern Michigan for ruffed grouse. My partner and I had hunted this area last year — all public lands of the Manistee National Forest and Pere Marquette State Forest — so I had some GPS waypoints marked from that effort.

By plugging the waypoint coordinates into the Internet service Google Earth, I was able to get an aerial look at the cover that held birds last year, which are typically clearcuts that return in a mixture of aspen, oak, maple and beech.

Once familiar with how these covers looked from the air, it was possible to find similar areas, ones located farther from any roads where hunting pressure would likely be less.

In Google Earth, the lat/long coordinates are displayed on the bottom of the page, in relation to the position of the cursor. The numbers can then be fed into a hand held GPS unit so you can easily find them when on the actual hunt.

Google Earth is just one resource for finding aerial and/or satellite images. Google Maps offers a satellite view that can also be used. In my experience, the images are often the same.

While the coordinates aren’t on display in Google Maps, it’s easy to find them. Just right click on the spot you want to mark. That will open a window, of which “what’s here?” is a choice. Click on that option and the coordinates will appear.

One advantage of Google Earth (over Google Maps) is that the date of when the image was taken is displayed on the page. Naturally, the most recent photos are of the greatest benefit to the hunter. Not only are the viewed features more relevant, the resolution is much greater. Images taken during the past year or two are very well defined. On a stream I fish in northern Clarion County, it’s possible to clearly see individual rocks along the creek bed.

Bing Maps is a similar site. From what I’ve seen, the Bing images are all recent. Bing offers aerial views that are similar to Google. There is also a “bird’s eye” view that displays the image at an angle, rather than straight down, a look that offers a different perception.

Displaying the coordinates is a bit trickier on Bing. Right clicking, in some areas, displays the lat/long numbers; in other areas it’s necessary to pick the “share” option, which opens up a new message in your e-mail program. The coordinates should be imbedded in the email link.

The usefulness of all this goes beyond keying in on specific habitats. For instance, you can mark access points. Again, using my recent Michigan trip as an example — where aspen cutovers look very similar — it was advantageous to mark the parking spots located near significant covers in my truck’s Garmin.

In the future, expect to be able to access Geographic Information System (GIS) maps via websites of DNR websites. In fact, Michigan already has such a feature on its site. On it, you can zero in on a specific location, and by incorporating various layers determine the type of forest growth that’s there, the age of the forest, nearby camping locations, etc.

Significant work is being done by the Pennsylvania Game Commission in the GIS field; hopefully similar information will be available on that agency’s website someday soon.

While I’ve used a grouse hunt as a case in point here, the same effort could be made to locate prime whitetail spots, who like grouse, are creatures of habitat edges.

Regardless of the shortcuts to planning such technologies provide, it doesn’t replace “boots on the ground.” Happily, the final evaluation of habitat takes place when you’re there in person.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle