I seem to recall that Newt Gingrich & company were convinced that the market was being unfairly stymied in providing maps, so they worked pretty hard to choke o

I seem to recall that Newt Gingrich & company were convinced that the market was being unfairly stymied in providing maps, so they worked pretty hard to choke off funding and narrow the mission of the USGS. There's been far too small a budget to keep maps even vaguely up to date and my understanding is that current Republican lawmakers are keeping this situation going for the same political reasons. The US is huge and underfunding the USGS means that every part of the government that works with them is getting bad data. I can't imagine the FS is having an easier time when the base maps are ancient.