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It seems there are significant differences between these USFS Topos and USGS Topos. Formatting, the presence of spot elevations, wilderness boundaries, section numbers, the list goes on. The USFS versions are superior to my eyes, but does anyone know why this is? Why is the USFS producing their own version of topographical maps? Have they done this for some time, or is it a more recent innovation?

To compare a couple side-by-side, here are links to the Platoro quadrangles in PDF form:

http://ims.er.usgs.gov/gda_services/dow ... id=5959854
http://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/rasterg ... FSTopo.pdf


Another question that comes to mind: why does the PDF from USDA.gov have better coloration than the FSTopo layer on this site? Is that layer coming from somewhere else? In particular, it's very hard to see forest cover on the FSTopo layer.

http://listsofjohn.com/mapf?lat=37.2887 ... 14&d=y&d=r

This might be a good place to ask the same question:
http://caltopo.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-forest-service-maps.html

My guess is Matt's collection is a point-in-time capture that is behind where the maps are today in terms of the geopdf info they contain (or maybe including all the info was too data-intensive?).

Thanks, John!