The Full Technical Readouts
Specifications on the maps and files.
The maps in the Main Gallery pages are updated to the best available set as of 10-1-24. The version presently viewable in the four main gallery pages is version number 10-1-24.
New PDF downloads are now available. All the maps shown on the website are all shown in a one column display in the PDFs. The 10-1-24 PDFs have 1532 pages. A search will bring you to the first page of a set of maps. The searchable text is only on the first page of each subset, the first page of each area. The idea is to bring you to the beginning of the group, if you search by name. The Small PDF is faster on the phone, and the Large PDF is slower. This especially refers to the speed with which the phone renders the thumbnail pictures, the ones you see as you scroll through the PDF on the phone. The displayed resolution of the most detailed maps with the smallest features varies as you would expect among the three PDFs. Large–slower–higher resolution, Small–faster–lower resolution. On the Small PDF, you can still see small details and the 20-foot contour lines in a low-resolution way, even on both sets of topos in the Wayne N.F. maps.
In the PDFs, there is hidden text “behind” the pictures. That is the main searchable text. When a match is found, normally, the highlighted area is usually pointing out the hidden text that is behind the picture, and it is in invisible gray. That is what is happening in the search. On an Apple iPhone, in the browser, the browser can also search and recognize text that is printed as pixels in the jpeg pictures themselves, which is good and bad. For Apple, the voice search seems to work better when the PDF is saved as a book, “saved in books”. A search should narrowly specify what you’re trying to jump to. Search “two mile” perhaps, instead of “regional”. Search “Wayne North” perhaps, instead of “Wayne National Forest”. You can probably find short phrases or words that bring up the group you want to see, after doing it a couple times. For example, the iPhone might misspell “Zepernick” badly as “Jasper”, but you can search for it by spelling out “Z-E-P”. The PDF files may allow a better picture viewer to be used on your device. Compared to putting the set A pictures into a folder on the phone, and viewing them with the native picture viewer on the phone, the PDF viewer may be superior.
The website and all of the download files currently show the 10-1-24 set. The previous versions were dated 7-23-22 (with 1095 pages), 10-7-23 (with 1377 pages), and 4-14-24 (with 1439 pages). In 2023 about 282 pages were added, and in 2024 about 155 pages were added in two steps. The 10-1-24 set has 1532 files. The all-in-one PDFs were added in 0924, and then they were updated to the 10-1-24 set. The 300 “Area pages” that are specific to one area were fully updated as of 10-17-24. These are linked up in blue on the Index page.
With the 4-14-24 upgrade, the gallery pictures are linked to 100% full size pictures, larger than the previous 74% ones. The gallery pictures link to a file that is 3300 x 3459 in size, and includes the full size base image at 2500 x 3300. This works well on a smartphone. You can zoom in and see small detail and small fonts on the 100% images.
The full size base images are 2500 x 3300 pixels as a maximum size. This means 2500 x 3300 or 3300 x 2500, portrait or landscape. These are the sizes of the base pictures in the “100% with title” download.
There are 3 intro pages at the beginning of the set. There are 7 list pages at the end of the set. There are about 40 buffer pages that are the letters of the alphabet, or references to “see another page”, or markers for the start of a big set. So, the 10-1-24 set has around 1482 pages that are maps or information pages on the hunting areas.
In 0624 some “dual area pages” have been added and there are now links to them in the Index. These “area webpages” show all of the pages for Appalachian Hills on one webpage, as an example. The pictures on the dual area pages are the “100% with Title” premium pictures. They are the ones in download set A. You can now save them or download them from the area page. On an Android smartphone, “long-click” the picture and it can be saved to the phone, one by one. On a PC, the whole set of pictures for that wildlife area can be saved to the PC by saving the webpage as “Webpage, Complete”, and then the pictures can be taken out of the folder manually. The full size 100%-with-title pictures can be saved in this way, without the download-with-a-zip-file process. A group of pictures for just one wildlife area can be obtained in this way. The pictures in the four main gallery pages are different, less ideal for personal use. They have gray sidebars or a gray section above the embedded landscape picture, to make them all the same size. The 100% with title pictures on the dual area pages have a smaller title font on the bottom title strip, more suitable for personal use. The “dual” refers to the link to the secondary page, with “larger pictures for PC”. The area page with the larger pictures displays them at 650 x 858. The large thumbnail picture on the PC webpage can be seen all-in-one on a typical PC monitor, at about 8″ tall. The webpages on the PC are a bit sluggish because the server is really sending a bunch of full size images. You can save the full size image. The landscape or portrait relative look and size is thus maintained on both phone and PC, with either one of these area pages.
The newer version of the map set is meant to completely replace the older version. Do not mix the files in the sets. If you had the 4-14-24 version “full set A” in a folder on your phone, you can delete it and replace it completely with the new 10-1-24 set. There is no loss of older material. Some pictures in the newer set are renumbered and renamed, or moved in their order, and so the older set should be discarded.
With a title like, “0220 Acadia Cliffs ODNR boundary 0921”, the “ODNR boundary” part means “this is the current main boundary map provided by the ODNR”, at least up to September 2021. This implies that the map was probably posted on their website as the main current boundary line map, at least as of 0921.
In the titles, “0210” means that the page material was obtained around February 2010 timeframe. For an 0210 date, this is quite old, but most of these areas don’t change very much. Ten year old aerial photos often look very much the same as new ones.
In the titles, “0921” means this was the last date where the map was verified to be on the ODNR website as the official map. 0921 means “September of 2021”. The boundary lines depicted were presumably accurate up to that date. They are the advertised boundaries on the ODNR website, as the ODNR had the map posted that way, on that date.
The map may have been there long before 0921, and may have been there after 0921. The date in the title also places a date upon the other types of pages, such as the page-two informational text pages that accompany the older maps. It’s assumed that when a map showing boundary lines is posted on the ODNR website, it is an assertion by the ODNR of what the boundary line situation is. “Boundary line” means property line. The property lines on the maps usually show where the surrounding private property is, with respect to the public area. In most cases, these boundary lines have not changed in years, and the dates
are unimportant.
Some of the original source material is from 2 or 3 page pdf files, and the page number of the original is not always cited in the new title, but many times it is.
The titles of the pages are meant to be “uniform logical titles” that always include the name of the area first, and then a few more words to describe the view.
The titles include a unique 4 digit prefix number that is the prefix for the individual picture filename, and this allows for easy alphabetical ordering on a computer. The prefix number is also a handy short name.
The files are ordered alphabetically by area name. And then within a group of files for one area, the files are usually ordered from most important to least important, and newest to oldest.
The coverage of the areas.
In 2023, all of AEP ReCreation Land became part of Appalachian Hills. Some of pages in these groups are out of date with respect to this change.
Appalachian Hills, Jesse Owens, and AEP Recreation Land, in the 2022 timeframe, were a large area that used to be called AEP Recreation Land only. There is a single set of maps to cover this whole area. In a problematic way, the one set is divided into parts and all three of these areas are listed separately, with subsets of the main map set.
Wayne National Forest pages are divided into three parts in a logical way. The naming convention is “North, East, and South”. There are longer and more proper names for these N.F. units.
Areas with naming problems
“Jesse Owens State Forest” in the 2020 completely complete list is the same as Jesse Owens State Park and wildlife area in the set. This is a mistake in the 2020 completely complete list that was corrected in 2021. There is no such thing as a State Forest with this name, as of 0522. Nothing comes up on a Google search of “Jesse Owens State Forest Ohio”, other than Jesse Owens State Park, the usual stuff, the same material as in the set. The “Ohio Regulations and Areas Interactive Map” indicates nothing unusual, it just says “Jesse Owens” over the same general area. All available info suggests there is no reason to think there is some other State Forest land out there, as of May 2022.
“Symmes Township” in the completely complete list is the same as Symmes wildlife area in the set. This is in Lawrence County, 114 acres, northwest of the town of Waterloo. The Symmes boundary map does not have it titled as “Symmes Township”, but it’s the same place, there is only one area with this name.
“Taylor Ridge” in the completely complete list is the same as “Trimble Township Community Forest” on the map of the Wallace H. O’Dowd wildlife area. There is a ODNR webpage for Taylor Ridge wildlife area with no useful information in 0522. The “Ohio Regulations and Areas Interactive Map” has the name as Taylor Ridge. Taylor Ridge is also the name of an actual geographic feature in the area. This may be a name from the past, or an ODNR name from the future, as of 0522. This land appears to be public hunting land. The current or prior owner is “Appalachia Ohio Alliance”, and they have a webpage with information, as does Athens Conservancy, and Wikipedia. The Appalachia Ohio Alliance webpage in 0522 says, “Public access for hiking and hunting is permitted without charge”. This area is in the middle of Wayne N.F. North and O’Dowd, near Nelsonville. Trimble Township Community Forest is shown on the O’Dowd map in the set. In the 2010 timeframe, a tract of land in the area used to be called “Trimble wildlife area”, but this is now an obsolete designation in 2022.
“Toussaint Creek” in the completely complete list is the same as Toussaint in the set. The Toussaint ODNR boundary map does not have it titled as “Toussaint Creek”, but it’s the same place, there is only one area with this name.
“Vinton Furnace” in the completely complete list is the same as the gold colored area on the Vinton Furnace State Forest boundary map, the area south of the State Forest. The 4-14-24 set has a new ODNR map of “Vinton Furnace wildlife area”. The completely complete list has the State Forest and the wildlife area listed as separate areas. The State Forest map legend does refer to the area in a general way as “State wildlife area” but without the full proper name. This area used to be called Raccoon Ecological Management area, and has been called Mead Paper Lands in
the past. As of 0522 timeframe, there were no official stand-alone maps for this wildlife area, and it was shown only in the State Forest and Raccoon maps in the set. In 0522, the “Ohio Regulations and Areas Interactive Map” showed this area with yellow lines as a wildlife area separate from the S.F., with the Vinton Furnace name. There is a nearby very small area called “Jackson County Line” at the extreme south end. Vinton Furnace wildlife area did have a ODNR webpage in 0522, and in 0424, but there is no useful information. In 0424 the new photo-style ODNR map and the OHRAIM interactive map show this area accurately.
“The completely complete list” is on page one of the ODNR list of wildlife area downloadable maps as of 0622. It is shown as a link at the top of the list now, and was previously shown on page 5. This is the “List of State Owned Lands Designated as Public Hunting Areas”, downloadable as a pdf document. The total combined list of all public areas comes from an ODNR document called “State Owned Lands Designated as Public Hunting Areas”. This big semi-complete list was made around 2020 timeframe to establish the areas where antlerless deer hunting regulations and bag limits would apply. For a few years, there were new rules specifically for public land. The list was revised in 0921. That document can be taken as a “completely complete list” of public land. It is in fact very complete, but it is not 100% complete. There are County Parks, owned by various county governments, that allow public hunting. There are a few areas acquired by the ODNR very recently, and are not on the list yet. There are a few other areas not on the “completely complete list”, for various different reasons. There are naming issues too, like those listed above.
“Ohio State Forests” has 2 pages in the set in 4-14-24. All of the 24 Forests are in the set, or are in the INDEX or “not shown” lists at the end. Hunting is allowed at all State Forests, and so they are (almost) all listed in the completely complete list. 24 State Forests come up on the ODNR website in 0322. Ron Abraham State Forest is one, but is small, and apparently is the only one that does not allow hunting. In the 1020 version of the completely complete list, Jesse Owens was listed as a State Forest, but this was incorrect, it is a State Park and wildlife area only.
“Ohio State Parks that allow hunting” are in the set with 2 pages in 4-14-24. All of the State Parks that allow hunting are either in the set, or are in the INDEX or “not shown” lists at the end. Hunting is allowed in about 49+ of the 73+ State Parks, and so all of the ones that allow hunting are listed in the completely complete list. The State Parks have numerous restrictions on hunting, and the maps designate tracts of land for hunting that are unique to each Park. None of the Parks are wide-open to hunting. You must look at the new maps. There are detailed hunting maps for about 30 of these State Parks available on the ODNR website in 0322. Some of them are not in the main ODNR list, and have to be found by name, one by one.
The original source material
The original source material in the whole set includes: Ohio Department of Natural Resources website maps, the ODNR’s “Hunting Regulations and Areas Interactive Map” on the website, ODNR-Ohio Division of Forestry’s maps of the State Forests, USGS “quadrangle” 7.5 minute topo maps, USFS “Motor Vehicle use maps” of the Wayne National Forest, the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District maps from their website, American Electric Power maps, Ohio Department of Transportation’s map of Ohio, Google aerial photos, and Bing aerial photos and birds-eye aerial photos.