1,000 Trees in a Day: Mapping Oak Spring's Living Landscape
OSGF
This fall, we are revisiting a major Oak Spring Garden Foundation digital asset: The Managed Tree Inventory. Established in 2022, this comprehensive database tracks over 2,000 trees across the OSGF landscape, recording species, spatial distribution, health condition, and management features. The dataset serves as a vital tool for the Arboriculture, Conservation, and Landscapes (ACL) team to manage these living assets, while also offering visiting residents, fellows, and guests a reference to explore the diversity of trees that call OSGF home.
Every year, hundreds of trees are added to the inventory by the ACL team, and every four to five years, the ACL team revisits them using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) managed by GIS Data Systems Manager Katharine Perkin. This digital workflow provides a fast, field-enabled method to efficiently assess tree features and conditions. Over 10 staff members across 3 teams participated in the revisit for trees on the Loughborough side of the OSGF property. Working in pairs throughout the day, each pair tackled a subset of the inventory and reviewed existing management features, updated current conditions, and photographed each tree revisited. This collaborative effort made it possible to revisit nearly 1,000 trees in a single day, demonstrating the true power of teamwork paired with GIS efficiency.
Reflecting on the success of the initiative, Clif Brown, Head of ACL, shared:
"The true teamwork of this tree inventory process, alongside Katharine Perkins' expertise, has enabled me to receive critical information on how the landscape is faring around OSGF. This collected data gives me the needed insight to prioritize jobs and fix issues with trees across the landscape that we might not have eyes on every day. It is a worthwhile and vital collection of information that will continue to grow with each tree species as it thrives on the Oak Spring Garden Foundation grounds."
A special shout out and huge thank you to the Arboriculture, Conservation, and Landscapes, Native Plant Conservation, GIS, and Garden teams with a special guest, Merlin Townsend from Bodnant Garden, who lent their time, hands, and expertise in the field; their hard work makes vital stewardship like this possible!
Looking ahead, this work will continue beyond the initial 2,000-tree inventory. This fall, the ACL team will tackle the other 1,000 trees across Rokeby, with fieldwork currently planned for early October. Once this phase is complete, the tree inventory will be re-designed to make the information even more useful and accessible, with a new version planned for 2027.
The next phase will also expand the inventory to include the trees being planted as part of the Oak Spring Arboretum. With more than half of the arboretum plantings now complete, we are looking ahead to a dedicated arboretum dashboard or web experience that will offer another way to explore these growing collections.
Tree Inventory Dashboard for reference:
https://gis.oakspring.org/arcgisportal/apps/dashboards/c733e8cf688e47b69bcabaa813eebab3