How is the World Changing?  find out for yourself.

As we are facing a global climate crisis, we must look for global solutions.  Through our Measure Up programs, we teach and implement forest research; simply put, we measure trees.  Yet we do so using standardized international methods so that the informatino can be shared and compared globally.    The protocols set out for forest biodiversity monitoring plots to measure forest changes, protocols created by the Smithsonian Institution/Man and the Biosphere Biological Diversity Program, are what we use to contribute to global research.   Here in Canada, we need to monitor our forests and think critically on how trees will be impacted by climate change, and what trees will survive the changes predicted for 2050 and beyond.   

Our School Yard

Teachers trained at ACER's Our Schoolyard Summer Institute have been implementing the program over the past year.  Each school will complete a tree inventory according to Smithsonian Protocols for Forest Research (Internationally accepted), and create a GIS map of their schools.  Each year, these trees will be remeasured and to accumulate information to be used by urban forest researchers.  The data gathered, GIS project files, and photos of field implementation are located here.

Planting for Change

ACER has just received funding from EcoAction's Community Funding Program.  Planning and implementation of these climate change research plantings will begin spring and fall 2008 at the following schools: To see the schools involved check here.

Herb Campbell PS (Caledon) Applewood Heights SS (Mississauga) Appleby College (Oakville) Oakville Trafalgar HS (Oakville) Robert Bateman SS (Burlington Christ the King SS (Georgetown).

Guido de Bres SS (Hamilton) John Fisher PS (Toronto) Ridgewood (Mississauga)

 

Let’s Plant - Measure & Mulch!

Students and Volunteers planted 2100 trees at ACER's 1ha research plot in at Humber College's Arboretum. Since the original planting in 2002, students have measured the success and growth of these trees annually. Initially, the experiment was set up to study climate change impacts on tree growth within an urban heat island, 3.7 degrees warmer than rural ontario, which will experience similar warming with global climate change. 

• Scientific poster created from the data gathered at this research plot here.
• ISA article outlining the details of the experiment here.

Go Global!

Twelve one-hectare plots along southern ontario's escarpment were inventoried and measure in according smitsonian's international forest research protocols.  This project began in 1996, and we have a database that plots the data collected then.

• Map of the field sites across Ontario, please click here.
• Go Global data here ( The SI/MAB forest plotter maps are also accessible through this interface).