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Earth Day Canada 2016: Maps and Apps to Celebrate the Global Forest

Let’s celebrate Earth Day! This year’s focus is on the global forest and its importance to our environment. Forests clean our air, provide us with oxygen, and are home to many animals, insects and plants. Explore some ArcGIS Online forest and tree Web maps and apps that you can use in your teaching.

Happy Earth Day! This is a perfect opportunity to explore the value of our renewable resources with your students. This year Earth Day Canada’s focus is on the importance of the global forest. The main goal of the campaign is to commit to planting 25,000 trees in Canada by April 22, 2016. Trees provide many health benefits and are planted to promote a sustainable and healthy environment.

Make Earth Day every day!

Celebrate Earth Day by discussing the importance of forests and trees around the world and use the following ArcGIS Online resources in your teaching:

Arctic Ecozones in Canada by Dominant Land Cover
Use this Web map to explore the dominant land cover in each Arctic Ecozone.

Intact Forest Landscapes 2013
This Web map Identifies the world’s last remaining undisturbed forest areas large enough to retain all native biodiversity and showing no signs of human activity as of 2013 and degradation from 2000-2013.

Terrestrial Ecoregions
Find out where forest ecoregions are located using the Global Terrestrial Ecoregions data.

Use the Global Terrestrial Ecoregions Web map to explore ecoregions in continents around the world.

Natural Events in Canada
Use this Web map to explore forest fires that occurred in Canada in 2010.

Global Deforestation Fronts
Explore the regions of the world that are experiencing deforestation.

The Global Deforestation Fronts Web map shows areas of deforestation around the world.

Calgary City Tree Recovery and Restoration Schedule 2016
In September 2014, a late-summer snow storm impacted Calgary’s urban forest. The City estimates that 50 per cent of Calgary’s 500,000 public trees and 1.5 million private trees were damaged. Find out how the recovery and restoration of Calgary's forest will occur based on the area.

Ash Tree Removals and Treatments
The City of Kingston has been preparing for the expected arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer species forsome time. The City has completed an inventory of municipally-owned trees – in parks, on boulevards, near city-owned facilities and along roads.

Amazon Deforestation Fronts
Find out what areas in the Amazon are likely to experience high levels of deforestation in the next 20 years.

International Forestry Students' Symposium (IFSS) 2014: Our Roots, Our Future. A Forest Journey Across British Columbia
Explore British Columbia's forested landscapes and the connections with its history, its people and its future.

Global Forest Watch Fires
Use this Web app to examine the forest fires that have affected Indonesia.

Forest Atlas of Congo
Explore Congo’s Forest Atlas with this Web app.

Find more ArcGIS Online resources by using the search term “ArcCanada”. This tag is used to find all content created by the Esri Canada Education K-12 group.

About the Author

Angela Alexander is a K-12 Education Specialist in the Esri Canada Education and Research group. She has over 15 years of experience working with educators across Canada. Angela focuses on producing geographic information system (GIS) and curriculum-specific resources, and conducting and creating custom workshops for educators. She manages the GIS Ambassador Program and is the Technical Chair for the annual Skills Ontario GIS competition. Angela also writes monthly posts for the Esri Canada Education and Research blog, highlighting K-12 educators and partners, new ArcGIS resources and GIS-related events.

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