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Allegheny National Forest Gone?? (Google maps)

3K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  Dogface 
#1 ·
Just noticed today that the Allegheny National Forest is no longer designated or shown as the normal green blob on Google Maps. Anyone know what is up with that?
 
#2 ·
Wow, just checked and yeah its totally gone. I have no clue what would have happened. I usually don't trust google maps boundaries for public land and opt for county gis maps more.
 
#3 ·
I googled the issue and found someone's blog post from 2012 talking about a similar thing in another state. They said it was because the national park lost it's status with the government. I couldn't find any news relating to that with the ANF.
 
#5 ·
I know in WNF in Southern Ohio they just had large swatches of land that were shaded green thus looked to be public that were actually not, due to the patchwork nature of the federal land. I don't hunt ANF to know if that is the case there or not, but I imagine that caused landowners a whole lot of trespassing headaches from people not doing their due diligence and just trusting the google boundaries.
 
#6 ·
They have some sort of glitch, Looking at the SFL in the Poconos, the section where my cabin is located is now white and the adjoining private land is green....been that way for a few months now.
 
#7 ·
From having hunted the ANF for 15+ years I can vouch for Elk's statement. The Google map just showed everything being green, denoting public. When in reality there are a lot of little parcels(relatively speaking) that were private.
 
#9 ·
In all honesty it may as well be gone. When I was growing up it was a great place ro hunt and fish with large patches of uncut timber. Now it's more a checker board of gas and oil roads with wells all over the place. You can hardly walk 1/4 mile in most places without hitting a road. I've been run off roads with big trucks and confronted about what I was doing on guy's leases in there. Really? It's the ANF, not your lease. Lease this.

It's more like the Allegheny National gas and oil field or the Allegheny National eyesore anymore. Good riddance if it was gone.
 
#10 ·
Kudu, that was my point the ANF does not control every contiguous acre from point A to B. It's a patchwork of public and private properties interspersed. There are areas that you could think you're in the middle of nowhere, but there's a patch of private land X acres in size right in the middle. The only true map would be one from the ANF. Anything online is useless because they just shade everything in green and miss those tracts of private land.
 
#11 ·
It's always been like that, but it seems to have gotten worse lately. The place where I was confronted, I know for fact I was on ANF. I'd been hunting there for over 30 years. All of a sudden, there are wells everywhere and the guy who runs them thinks he owns the place.
 
#12 ·
The ANF is like the game lands in that in most cases they don’t own the mineral rights. Since they don’t own the minerals they are powerless to stop those who do own the minerals, under their soil, from going in and removing them.

It is a shame though the way parts of the public land have been chopped up with roads to get to the wells. In the case of the ANF though it is mostly oil wells that has resulted in the checkerboard of roads. The miles and miles of roads are worse than the wells. I used to tell people that I sure hoped I never have to try to direct emergency personnel to an accident scene in that maze of oil well roads. If you looked at a map of the roads it was like looking at a maze of how to get the rabbit to his home in the games you did as a kid. There were times when I was working night patrol that we could watch someone spotlighting and shooting in the maze of roads but could never catch up with them because of all the turns both they and we could make and never get on the same road at the same time.

Dick Bodenhorn
 
#13 ·
ANF maps are readily available from the Forest Service. For detail the official ANF management map is the best. The authorized ANF "area" is some 700,000 acres, if I recall off the top of my head. The actual ANF acreage is something like 536,000 (again, off the top of my head.) Some inholdings are public lands, including Game Lands. Many others, often relatively small blocks are privately held. If you look at the authorized boundaries you will see that of the additional acreage falls outside the core 500k acres. Most large scale maps shade the entire core area, but not the entire authorized areas. Others include it.
 
#14 ·
FYI: I just received this. I thought you ANF guys might be interested.

House OKs Bill to Enhance Forest Management in ANF

The state House has approved legislation highlighted in last week’s email update, authorizing the Commonwealth to enter into a Good Neighbor Agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow the state to help manage the Allegheny National Forest through timber harvesting, promoting forest regeneration, and restoring or improving habitats.

Many of our communities rely on the financial support that comes from harvesting timber on the ANF, as well as the jobs the industry supports. House Bill 1494 would help enhance the long-term health and productivity of the forest, benefitting both the environment and the local economy.

The bill now goes to the Senate for its consideration.
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