Landscope America - Natural History on the web

Our ability to represent what has been observed about our natural world - our collective, place based, natural history knowledge - has progressed by leaps and bounds. Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) , the first user friendly application allowing us to view our world, has served as a springboard for efforts that are more targeted to natural history and conservation. The most recent, and in many ways most promising of these approaches may be Landscope America (http://www.landscope.org/preview/Home.html). This initiative is still in the early phases of development, but this joint project of Nature Serve and National Geographic promises to connect people to what is known about the natural history and conservation work going on in their back-yard, and serve as a clearing house for natural history efforts that range from local to national. To date, this project is only a US effort, but my hunch is that this type of interface will quickly move to the international stage if it is successful here. Look over the webpage, and contact your heritage program to see who is collecting the information in your area. This resource only works if we make sure the relevent information is included.