A Companion Blog to the Internet of Nature Podcast Season 5, Episode 9

February 12, 2024  |  Alec Sabatini

Oxfordshire, a county of 600,000 people in South East England, is probably best known as the home of Oxford University, the oldest university in the english-speaking world. The buildings may be ancient, but the team that manages the trees of this historic area has embraced a modern, technology-assisted approach.

On Episode 9 of the Internet of Nature podcast, Dr. Nadina Galle spoke with Andy Lederer, Principal Arboriculture Officer for Oxfordshire County Council, to get the scoop on how software and data informs his work.

Urban Forestry Data: Measuring What Matters Most

Andy has been working in arboriculture for nearly two decades and has long been a believer in collecting urban forestry data.

“Data enables me to make informed decisions, whether I’m making a business case or trying to explain the situation I’m dealing with to others, utilizing data is a critical tool in giving any kind of idea validity.”

When Andy started at Oxfordshire five years ago they were tracking some urban forestry data, but it lacked the detail to be truly helpful. Capturing unnecessary information not only wastes time, but it can also disenfranchise staff. If they don’t see the utility in what they are collecting it can eventually lead to a decline in data quality.

To remedy the situation, Andy launched an internal review to identify what information would most help their operations. They sat down as a team and agreed on justifications for each data field included in their tree inspections. That process weeded out things like “age class”, which puts the tree into subjective, unhelpful groupings. By the end of the process, they decided to switch their software to TreePlotter INVENTORY to collect and manage a new, focused set of data fields.

Molding Software to Their Needs

After identifying their urban forestry data targets and adopting TreePlotter, Andy worked to streamline their processes. For example, his team had initially been using spreadsheets to track their drive-by surveys of street trees. Inevitably, staff would miss a date or use the wrong sheet, and the whole process would get messy. Andy reached out to PlanIT Geo for help creating an alternative method.

With a little application support, the Oxfordshire TreePlotter now has a layer of white lines representing all roads. When a road gets surveyed, the tree officer simply selects the corresponding line, adds the date of inspection, and voilà, the line turns green. This uniform system is saving time and making it more accessible for outside teams, like insurance staff, to get the information they need too.

“My team is much more agile now. At least 3, if not 4 days a week they are out looking at trees. They don’t need to go to the office because the technology we’ve got enables them to stay out and do pretty much everything they need to do.”

-Andy Lederer

Demonstrating Tree Value

Next on Andy’s information wishlist is to get a baseline of Oxfordshire’s canopy cover. From the ground you can get pieces of the canopy picture, but a map of canopy cover developed from LiDAR and satellite imagery offers a comprehensive view. It would be invaluable for tracking urban forest trends and for studying the equitable distribution of trees throughout the county.

Hundreds of communities, like Oxfordshire, use TreePlotter INVENTORY to simplify and enhance their urban forestry operations. With scalable product levels and a range of industry-specific functionalities, TreePlotter is powerful and flexible. Use the button below to start a conversation about how TreePlotter can support your urban forestry goals.