Google Street View Extends to Old Man On His Back

Google Street View will soon include images of five nature sites across Canada including Southwest Saskatchewan's Old Man On His Back Ranch.

Thanks to a new partnership between Google and The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) people will now be able to enjoy these grasslands and view bison in their natural habitat at the ranch.

The ranch was purchased by the Conservancy in 1996 and is a native prairie consisting of 13,000 acres mostly comprised of grasslands.

Natalie Hassett, Natural Areas Manager for the Nature Conservancy says the partnership will also allow everyone to visit the ranch no matter where they are.

"It is a really great way for people that maybe possibly can't make it down here to still visit the property at home in front of their computer. It's also a great way for people that have visited the property to kind of keep up with what's been happening here maybe if it's been a couple of year's since they visited. It is also just a great way to preview it if you're coming down to actually view the property as well," she said.

Luke W. C. Thomas, Manager of Digital Services for the Nature Conservancy and Technical Director of the project says the trekker will be the same one used on cars to catch street views of neighbourhoods.

"The trekker that we have is one that is mounted on your back on a backpack so you can carry it and you can go into places that don't have car accessibility so for us most of our properties we can not access by car so it's just a fantastic way to capture a lot of the properties we have and maintain," he said.

Thomas says the trekker is based on a GPS and consists of a number of lenses which capture images all around in a 360 degree panoramic view.

Although all images have now been collected, it will still be about three months before the images will appear on Google Street View.

When available, the links to the maps will be included on the Nature Conservancy's website.

Anyone looking for more information about the ranch or any nature site can visit the sites which are always open to visitors or call the Nature Conservancy office at 306-347-0447.