The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of
The Pew Charitable Trusts, a nongovernmental organization that works globally to protect our oceans, preserve wildlands and promote clean energy. Pew and its sister organization, the
Canadian Boreal Initiative, developed this tour to illustrate the nature of the
blue forest and its ability to store massive amounts of carbon, primarily in its soil and wetlands. The tour is featured at the
launch of Google Earth Outreach in Canada, happening this week.
Viewers will see bears, wolves, and caribou that still roam this vast landscape, learn about aboriginal communities that depend on the boreal, view the
Peace-Athabasca Delta, one of the most important wetlands in the world, and the last refuges for North American Atlantic salmon.
The Peace-Athabasca Delta viewed in the Pew Environmental Group's new Google Earth tour.
Unfortunately, Canada’s boreal forest is increasingly affected by large-scale industrial activities. A rapidly expanding footprint of development already includes 180 million acres (728,000 km²) affected by forestry, road building, mining, oil and gas extraction, and hydropower.
Pew and CBI have worked with aboriginal communities, conservation groups, federal, provincial and territorial governments to protect the boreal, resulting in 185 million acres set aside from development to date, including key wetland and river areas. That total represents more than 12% of Canada’s 1.2 billion-acre (nearly 4.9 million km²) boreal forest.
Visit us online to learn more about
this new tour and the steps we can take together to protect this global treasure.
Posted by Steve Kallick, Pew Environment Group
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