Peter Eredics, ESRI Forestry Program Manager, just alerted us to a very interesting and useful ArcGIS Server application by the World Resources Institute. The application is part of WRI’s Southern Forests for the Future Program. The new Web mapping app provides a new way to learn about and protect forests of the southern United States.

For a quick tutorial, watch the YouTube map viewer demonstration video they have created. It highlights some very compelling components tied to the data services the app presents (e.g., the 1940-2030 suburbanization layer and its time line slider), map tools (including mark up and sharing), and valuable text and multimedia items linked to various Forest Features, Drivers of Change, and Solutions.

Not interested in watching the video, simply charge ahead and discover what the site has to offer and the begin imagining what you can be teaching with it via your Web browser.

For more about the site, see WRI’s press release and Matt Artz’s blog post about it.

- George Dailey, ESRI Education Program Manager