About Dawna Bernhagen from Bernhagen Right of Way.

About Dawna Bernhagen

Hey there, I am Dawna Bernhagen, formerly Dawna Butcher, and welcome to my company website!

Where it all began:

I was born a tenacious, horseless horse girl on a small dairy farm in north central Minnesota. Considered ‘hay burners’, I resorted to riding cows until my parents gave in and allowed ponies into our pastures.

From the backs of my ponies, I explored hundreds of miles of hunting trail, logging roads and county roads. With a love for wandering outdoors, it is no surprise that Land Surveying ended up being my career path, nor is it a surprise that I discovered endurance competitions.

I enjoyed drafting classes in high school and was decent at math, so I charted a path to become a civil engineer. A required course is surveying, described as the communication between the engineer and the builder. It sounded like a project function that I should fully understand. I reached out to a former high school teacher for a summer job connection. One of his oldest friends had a land surveying business in my hometown and introduced us. I spent the summer trekking the woods, fields, and wetlands, following in the footsteps of the original surveyors. This was my kind of work! I changed course to land surveying and so begins my story as a land surveyor, at a small company, in a small town.

This small scale was a large foundation of the connection between land boundaries, members of my community, and the impact of quality and timely work on your business.

“I was born a tenacious, horseless horse girl on a small dairy farm in north central Minnesota.”

Dawna Bernhagen

“It is no surprise that Land Surveying ended up being my career path.”

Dawna Bernhagen

“I changed course to land surveying and so begins my story as a land surveyor, at a small company, in a small town.”

Dawna Bernhagen

Post College:

I graduated from St. Cloud State University in 2008, concurrently with the housing crises that affected so many of us. I left my small town to join MnDOT at their Central Office in St. Paul, entering the world of right of way and big city life. Surveying and right of way principles are historical yet still unknown by much of the surveying and real estate community. Coming from a private sector environment, I found this area to be perplexing. Many of my questions were answered with, ‘this is the way it has always been done’. Unsatisfied with this response and persistent to fully understand, I was given opportunities to research old memos, historic manuals, and talk with retired individuals that wrote ‘the way’. I found a small community within a large state agency that loved to reminisce, much like the morning coffee crew back in my small town.

During my dozen years working at MnDOT’s Central Office, I had the benefit of being part of the conversations affecting projects statewide and providing guidance and solutions to roadblocks. Below are the groups that I directly worked within:

Final Mapping

Final Mapping- My first area of work at MnDOT, this unit provided an in-depth knowledge of the role of right of way maps as the index of the acquisitions, turnbacks, and conveyances. The challenges of keeping old records current and finding new methods of cataloging the constant flow of changes right of way. I learned firsthand the work that takes place on a road, long after a project is completed.

Legal Description & Platting

The bulk of my time at MnDOT was spent with this office. This is where I learned to master the MnDOT legal descriptions, learning the difference between writing a description for a private entity and writing a description for a government agency. Government is not in the business of fixing titles, nor do they want to define private entity land boundaries. I learned to review title opinions, comb documents for errors, sift through historic records to verify current rights, ask questions, brainstorm solutions, all while keeping projects on track to acquire land before letting. A few of the major projects I assisted with was the T.H. 53 relocation in Virginia, scanning the GLO notes, editing an abandoned railroad description from Bemidji to International Falls, as well as countless acquisition projects, turn backs, and conveyances statewide.

Project Coordination

As the name suggests, this office assists with the coordination of right of way projects between the district and central office to meet letting schedules and initiating the condemnation process when needed. Behind the scenes are tasks integrated with the final process for a construction project, the Project Delivery and Contract Award. Due to a tragic event for a fellow coworker, I was asked to assist the Project Coordination group. Little information was available on how they completed their tasks, and I had a reputation as a ‘fire fighter’. This challenging role of piecing together a workflow for reviewing the right of way line on all construction plans, completing right of way and non-encroachment certificates, tracking permits, utility and municipal agreements, and clearing projects for award. I not only learned an entirely new aspect of a project but established a more efficient and quality review process and storage of the documents. This benefited our group for random audits conducted by the FHWA.

This fast-paced group gave me a better understanding of all the right of way tasks, from surveys to appraisals, how they are parallel tasks with design, environmental and other project aspects, and how one overlooked title issue, loss of a coworker, or change in design can affect the entire process, jeopardizing the letting schedule.

Top 2 photos: Surveying with the crew from District 2- Bemidji.

Third Photo: Construction staking with a crew from the Metro district.

Bottom Photo: Analyzing GLO field notebooks for the scanning project

Post MnDOT:

Wanting to be part of the work and not the coordination, I moved to the consultant sector. A world not as connected and focused on the finer details of right of way acquisitions. Working on local let projects without the resources and process that MnDOT has in place while under the direction of project managers that are more focused on design than the long-term impacts of the right of way acquisition products. I found the titles lacking information needed to diligently layout existing right of way and adjoining landowner boundaries. With the fast pace of the consultant side of business, having such limited information from the starting gate was an expensive inefficiency.

I truly want to be part of the process in a beneficial way. So, I changed course again, attained my Abstractor’s License, and filed as a small business in Minnesota with dreams of providing title and surveying services from a right of way perspective. To provide resources and ensure everyone’s rights are protected as well as solidifying the right of way boundary for future generations. To aid in the efficiency of both time and money for a project.

Bernhagen Right of Way:

My first contract was in May 2023 for MnDOT’s Legal Unit. I have been providing title opinions statewide for various projects since. With my background working in the right of way sector, I roll up my sleeves and closely examine the proposed acquisition area. Searching for beneficial documentation or potential roadblocks for acquisition and collecting data that goes beyond marketable title to benefit design, surveying, and appraisal staff.

What I hope to provide right of way professionals are quality products that not only meet the needs of today but create the foundation for future projects. Products that other functional staff can utilize. I know the challenges and frustrations of the right of way process and the benefit of support from a small community. Bernhagen Right of Way is here to help your past, present and future. Contact Bernhagen Right of Way.

Beyond Work:

A silo eye view of ‘the farm’. Now only used as hay fields and time outdoors for our children; chasing snakes and star gazing.

My interests outside of work are really summed up by, ‘You can take the girl off the farm but not the farm out of the girl’. I may live in the metro, but my hobbies include gardening, horses, hiking, and spending time on my old Allis Chalmers tinkering on the small property in the small town I grew up in.