City of Trees

April 29, 2011 1:29 PM

A map of every street tree in Washington, DC.
posted by schmod (33 comments total)

Interesting, but it would have been helpful to make the tree icons semi-transparent so that the street names on the map remained easily legible.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:34 PM on April 29, 2011

I have shown the map to my dog and he smiled with sheer delight.
posted by Postroad at 1:38 PM on April 29, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh this is great for people with allergies who are planning on moving to DC!
posted by mateja at 1:43 PM on April 29, 2011

Someone needs to overlay the tree map with this crime map to see if there's any correlation. I've always found sycamores to be a bit shifty looking....
posted by Panjandrum at 1:44 PM on April 29, 2011 [6 favorites]

Now they know we're on to them!
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:50 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

Similar: Urban Forest Map, a user-generated map of trees in San Francisco.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:50 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

ryanshepard - looks like this was made using Google's Fusion Tables, which, unfortunately, only have 5 colors and 2 sizes to choose from for point markers
posted by kakarott999 at 1:53 PM on April 29, 2011

I have shown the map to my dog and he smiled with sheer delight.

I have something better for your dog: Fire Hydrants in Google Earth

Washington DC is the first city I'm aware of to use Google Earth to report on the status of fire hydrants. The DC Water and Sewer Authority has released a KML network link which reports on both working and non-working hydrants throughout the city.

posted by pracowity at 1:54 PM on April 29, 2011

I'm not sure if it's a new thing, but I noticed recently that the city of Seattle posts ordinances on trees around construction sites with a description of the tree's value should it be damaged. If I remember rightly, some of the larger trees in the downtown area had values in the $10,000 - $15,000 range. I guess it makes sense for larger metro areas to be cataloging and valuing their urban trees, and it's cool to see that data made public.
posted by rh at 1:54 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I demand they specifically include every Ginkgo tree* so we can avoid those fetid, foul fruits as much as possible.
*fruit-bearing ginkgo trees, to be specific
posted by Neekee at 1:56 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm also interested in seeing that map overlay that Panjandrum proposes. I didn't see how to add either to 'my google maps' so that I could do it myself.
posted by aniola at 2:05 PM on April 29, 2011

Wow, we've come so far since the early days of scientific forestry. This is really cool, thanks.
posted by clockzero at 2:06 PM on April 29, 2011

I was hoping this would be able to tell me what the trees with the pink leaves on the south side of the Capitol Complex are, damn...
posted by Blasdelb at 2:06 PM on April 29, 2011

And we're getting more on my street (Sherman Ave).
posted by oneironaut at 2:09 PM on April 29, 2011

I was wondering why Rock Creek Park didn't have any data points, and then I realized it falls under the jurisdiction of the US National Park Service.

It's funny to think there's a line if crossed the Urban Forestry Administration goes: "Hey, HEY! Stop taking care of our goddamn trees! TOO MUCH FEDERALISM!"

Knowing government though, they probably have laws about what to do if the branches of trees start invading federal land and vice versa.
posted by lemuring at 2:20 PM on April 29, 2011

I demand they specifically include every Ginkgo tree* so we can avoid those fetid, foul fruits as much as possible.
The sidewalks of Swann St NW (where I lived in a basement flat for a year) were stained with the fruit of the ginkgo trees lining the street.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 2:26 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I wish this existed for New York (for those of us without iPhones).
posted by gubo at 2:26 PM on April 29, 2011

I demand they specifically include every Ginkgo tree* so we can avoid those fetid, foul fruits as much as possible.
*fruit-bearing ginkgo trees, to be specific

If you identify a fruit-bearing female Gingko, gather signatures from 60% of your neighbors, and contact DDOT's Urban Forestry division, they will remove it and replace it with a non-fruit-bearing male Gingko tree. They also spray the known female trees during the spring to reduce the odors.

I have no idea what DC's penalties are for cutting down trees (the Seattle system sounds pretty cool), but I do know that business owners have gotten into massive amounts of trouble for removing street trees without permits (even ones that they planted themselves).
posted by schmod at 2:28 PM on April 29, 2011 [3 favorites]

(Bush joke)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:37 PM on April 29, 2011

Slight derail here, but as this will be a DC heavy thread, has there been a DC MeFi meetup, or any plans to?
posted by oneironaut at 2:44 PM on April 29, 2011

Is there a way to hide all the dots so that I can see the forest?
posted by Kabanos at 2:47 PM on April 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

The sidewalks of Swann St NW (where I lived in a basement flat for a year) were stained with the fruit of the ginkgo trees lining the street.
That sucks. I feel for you.

Thanks for the info, schmod. Do know you if it applies if it's within the grounds of the building (not on the street)?
posted by Neekee at 2:52 PM on April 29, 2011

A nice idea in theory, but I can tell you that this map is terribly out of date (for our neighborhood anyway). The last update is listed as September 2010, but the trees indicated for our block were gone well before that. Does it matter? I guess not, except that this database might be the reason that our requests for trees to replace the ones we lost have been ignored.
posted by Dead Man at 2:54 PM on April 29, 2011

I think Philadelphia's version may have launched today. Locations seem accurate but a lot of species info is missing.
posted by sepviva at 3:09 PM on April 29, 2011

ryanshepard - looks like this was made using Google's Fusion Tables

Oh, fun. Here's the full dataset, which you can aggregate and pivot to your heart's content.

For instance, did you know that if you stacked all of the trees (with hight data) end-to-end, they'd be 1060 miles long, or that there are 30 Crimson King Norway Maple trees in DC, with an average height of 32 feet?
posted by schmod at 3:51 PM on April 29, 2011

I never knew I grew up in the shadow of a Japanese zelkova tree, height 102 ft. I don't know what to make of this news...but my heart tells me that it is good.
posted by jnnla at 4:14 PM on April 29, 2011

The sidewalks of Swann St NW (where I lived in a basement flat for a year) were stained with the fruit of the ginkgo trees lining the street.

Noted in song.
posted by ryanshepard at 4:58 PM on April 29, 2011

This is so cool!! I found the tree in my front yard. :D
posted by sarahsynonymous at 5:24 PM on April 29, 2011

I wish Vancouver would make its street tree data open to the public. They're our trees after all.
posted by ecourbanist at 8:22 PM on April 29, 2011

I demand they specifically include every Ginkgo tree* so we can avoid those fetid, foul fruits as much as possible.

I have a friend who moved to a ginko-heavy street. She would think to herself, "man it really smells like vomit out here today." Then she'd walk down the street and stomp on all the little fruits because she liked the funny popping noise they make. It took her two years to put it all together.
posted by peeedro at 10:16 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I wish there was a map like this for where I live. People buy houses here because it's so beautiful and leafy, then immediately cut down the 50 year old tree in their front garden because they're scared of 'the roots' and poison the one in the street outside because it's spoiling their view.
posted by joannemullen at 1:13 AM on April 30, 2011

Ginkos Noted in song.

I love Swann Street! It's not the best song, but it's so DC, and it's the only song by 3 that I really liked at all.

Municipalities count trees among their assets on balance sheets, which is one of the reasons maps like this are important. This one is out of date, though.
posted by OmieWise at 7:59 AM on April 30, 2011

The sidewalks of Swann St NW (where I lived in a basement flat for a year) were stained with the fruit of the ginkgo trees lining the street.

Noted in song .

I love Swann Street! It's not the best song, but it's so DC, and it's the only song by 3 that I really liked at all.

wah, I hadn't ever heard that. Wow. Thanks for this.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 10:17 AM on May 6, 2011