Save the Redwoods League has partnered with Google Earth Outreach to create a virtual walk through a modeled old-growth redwood stand in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in California.
To celebrate the U.S.’s 120th Arbor Day, you can take a stroll through 3D stands of ancient redwood trees.
In a post on the Google Blog, Emily Limm of Save the Redwoods explains how to access the 3D walks.
“Explore the park by activating the 3D trees layer in Earth (under 3D Buildings) and searching for [Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, CA]. Tilt your view angle toward the horizon to make the trees appear.”
StR is also launching a new citizen scientist venture that sounds very cool. Redwood Watch launches today, powered by iNaturalist.org, a platform for recording, organizing and mapping nature observations.
“By sharing a simple digital photograph of a redwood tree and the time and location where the picture was taken, you can help the League track and monitor the species. If you know of a redwood tree–perhaps in your own backyard or in a nearby park–you can use the free Redwood Watch iPhone application or your own camera to take a photo, add a comment and submit it online. iNaturalist stores your observation and, if geographical coordinates weren’t captured automatically, uses the Google Maps APIs to assign them to your photo. With your geolocated observation, we can zoom out and analyze your observation in the context of global environmental and climatic patterns.”
A lovely way to celebrate our “often under-appreciated forests.” Now, if you’ll excuse me, I got some trees here in desperate need of hugging.
