Experts looking to protect a rare ecosystem are turning to the virtual world for help.
Brittany Hope, a biologist with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, strapped on a backpack mounted with a Google Street View camera for a hike through the Carden Alvar on Monday.
“It takes 15 shots every two seconds,” she says. “It will help create a virtual tour for us, so people can see the property without actually being here.”
An alvar is a globally rare ecosystem that occurs in areas of limestone bedrock with little or no top soil. It contains hard to find plants and animals, like the Loggerhead Shrike.
“You see lots of cedar and juniper that are really stunted and lots of specific forbs and grasses that only occur in alvars, which is really awesome and exciting,” says Hope.
The Nature Conservancy owns more than 1,300 acres.
People can visit the alvar by sticking to established trails, while the virtual tour allows them to experience other areas.
“[It] helps connect people to nature and that’s the whole goal; to get people to understand the work we do, all the work that takes place to protect species and their habitat,” says Luke Thomas, a spokesperson for the conservancy.
It will be several months before the data collected is processed, but when it is, the virtual tour of the Carden Alvar will and made available on Google Maps.
