Over the course of the summer, I engaged in a range of tasks from data cleaning and literature review management to more physical work outside conducting a tree inventory in Greenfield, MA. My purpose was to aid in my advisor’s PhD research by helping with administrative/organizational work in addition to adding supplementary data to their preexisting research in Greenfield. While in Greenfield, I was partnered with the local volunteer non-profit the Greenfield Tree Committee. Alongside the members of this group, we surveyed all the public trees throughout the city of Greenfield. Each data point (each tree) was plotted on an online map in which we also recorded dimensions and health characteristics of the tree, the genus and species, and proposed maintenance needs.
As a capstone to the summer and to benefit the Greenfield Tree Committee, I collaborated with one of the lead coordinators of the group to create an interactive, educational project for the public schools in the area. This project was created using a variety of GIS tools via ESRI’s ArcGIS suite. The final product consisted of introductory information about public trees followed by individualized school profiles showing the various trees found on each school’s campus. Each profile included descriptions of the school’s tree stock, fun facts about those trees, in addition to prompts which may help guide students through exploring their school’s campus.
