Is PDF layer extraction without acrobat possible?

You would think that, but it’s definitely not in Inkscape’s wheelhouse. I’ve done it once with acrobat on a friend’s computer who had the full license, and it was trivial.

@forhorsman – As for the source pdf, any quadrangle from nationalmap.gov is like this.

Here’s just one, of my hometown growing up:

(603 Glowforgers, represent!)