Maps

Lately I’ve been chewing over creating new state land maps 🌲

Lately I’ve been chewing over creating new state land maps 🌲

I’ve been exploring alternative designs and even a more automated process, but I am also realizing that the need for updates is less once the maps are uploaded as state land assets rarely change, and the DEC is now posting many much more high-quality maps compared to what was the case a decade ago.

Creating the same state land map over and over again is just boring, and not all that useful if the stylistic changes are small. Sometimes I get a new layer I can plot on a map, but often the new information isn’t particularly useful or relevant, and just makes the map cluttered. Plus, my interests have changed — I’ve mapped out most of state, and found the places that interest me the most, so it seems silly to do little obscure parcels of little interest to myself.

EDW/EDW_FSTopo_01 (MapServer)

EDW/EDW_FSTopo_01 (MapServer)

The FSTopo cartographic database supports the creation of 1:24,000-scale, 7.5-minute topographic PDF maps for the conterminous United States and Puerto Rico, and 15 minute x 20-22.5 minute, 1:63,360-scale maps over Alaska. The FSTopo Area of Interest covers the USFS National Forests and Grasslands. The cartographic database is updated accordingly as new data sources are added by means of data revision activities, which are coordinated between the National Forest/Grassland units and the USFS Geospatial Techology Applications Center (GTAC).