Resurveying Trees

A couple of years ago, I helped the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust survey 3,000 trees along the Stroudwater canal. There were six of us and it took the best part of a year. We managed to put together a comprehensive database of every tree and it’s condition. Now is the time to do a second survey to see what has changed.

My task is to pull together the data in a way that makes it easy to update the status, rather than capture every tree again.

I use a tool called Epicollect to manage the data through a mobile app. It’s a pretty powerful form builder and the data can be hosted for free.

I imported the entire set and made a new workflow so we could decide whether the existing record was ok, modifications were needed, or indeed if the tree was no longer there.

This morning I met with Pete from the Trust to test the app for the first time out in the field.

In general, it held up pretty well. There were a few bugs in the logic which I was able to fix there and then using my laptop. The only major issue is that Pete’s phone won’t upload photos because they are too big. They were fine on my phone. I’m going to have to try and find a work around if the surveyors also have this issue with their phone.

Next step is a formal training course at the end of the month with the Aboricultural Association and I’ll present my app to the surveyors after that course is complete.

In the afternoon, I met with Georgie to talk through some changes to the Wild Acres website. There’s a few small changes we can make which will enable more to be done with the site to showcase the project.