National Wildlife Refuges are now on Google Earth

For anyone interested in National Wildlife Refuges, or just plain curious, you should check out Google Earth. Take Pride's very own Just Kintz shared this with me this morning, and I thought it was useful enough to pass along. Read the full details HERE on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's website.

Google Earth, the most popular virtual globe on the Internet today, is now serving the boundaries of national wildlife refuges. Anyone using Google Earth can see the locations of national wildlife refuges simply by navigating to "Places of Interest" in the "Layers" palette, and selecting "US Fish and Wildlife Service boundary" under the "Parks and Recreation Areas" category.

To virtually "fly to" a refuge, Web users can enter the name of a town (and the state) located near a refuge under the "search" tab on the upper left side of the screen. Use the "zoom" tools in the upper right side of the screen to view the refuge boundary (or boundaries).

The appearance of refuge boundaries is the just the start of building public awareness about the Refuge System via Google Earth. By early next year or sooner, each refuge boundary on Google Earth will be linked to a pop-up window with brief descriptions of refuges, including visitor information, a photo and a link to the refuge Web site. Other data fields will be offered, including information on trails, roads and public facilities.