The rivers of Canada are known for their ecological, cultural, and recreational significance. These rivers contribute to our national identity and are an important element of Canada’s historical heritage. Once rivers are included in the Canadian Heritage Rivers System, they become part of a network of waterways administered by river stewards with a strong sense of responsibility. Governments, towns, conservation groups, and people who live near rivers all work together to protect, preserve, and respect them.

The CHRS Story Maps showcase the biological, cultural, and recreational characteristics of each historic river in Canada. You can take a virtual tour of these gorgeous rivers and discover more about their significance with the click of a mouse. Each Story Map of a historic river combines many graphical representations of geographic data with text, photographs, videos, and external connections. ArcGIS Online Story Maps were designed by ESRI in 2013 to give users a unique, interactive method for sharing and generating content. As the name of the platform suggests, virtual maps allow us to tell the story of each river in a way that traditional map images can’t.

In 2016, CHRS started laying the groundwork for our system-wide Story Maps Project by designing the first map. In 2018, the participating river managers and stewardship groups started studying each river’s ecological, cultural, and recreational values in order to make a full list of each river’s most important assets and bring each river’s story to life.