California National Forest maps have gone mobile

VALLEJO, Calif.– Now there’s a new, lighter and more convenient way to view your National Forest maps.

In response to a survey concerning U.S. Forest Service map availability, all forest visitor maps and quad maps covering portions of California are available for purchase through the Avenza PDF Maps Application. This app is free of charge and available for most Apple iOS products.

The app has a 4 1’2 star rating and can be downloaded directly to your device through the iTunes store.

You can go to the Avenza website now to get a beta version of the app for Android devices.

The Forest Service has determined this application is the best for displaying Forest Visitor Maps, Forest-Atlas pages, Motor Vehicle Use Maps, and Motor Vehicle Opportunity Guides.  The Motor Vehicle Use Maps and Motor Vehicle Opportunity Guides will be free of charge and are available now.

The maps are georeferenced and will work in conjunction with the GPS-enabled iOS devices (iPhone 3GS and higher/ iPads with 3G/LTE).  A link will be available through the “Maps and Publication” section of the R5 website: http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/r5/maps-pubs. Look for the Avenza Map button.

Once you have downloaded and installed the free PDF Maps app on your device, you can:

• Purchase and download professionally created maps from the thousands of maps in the Avenza Map Store.
• View your location using the integrated GPS (iPad 3G/LTE or iPhone 3GS or higher model required), even without a wireless connection or cellphone signal
• Plot placemarks, add notes, enter attribute data and add photos as attributes
• Search for places and points of interest on any map (online connection required)
• Export placemarks to share with colleagues, friends, or for future use
• Measure distances and areas

After downloading and using the app, let us know what you think at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Stay posted for the Forest Atlases as an iBook, wilderness maps and other great map products.