Dear Readers, 

I love trees. I love how tall and expansive they can grow. I love how their roots entangle and wrap and twist over just about whatever they gosh darn please. I love the feeling of their bark. I love the sense of humility they inspire. 

Trees are good. And I want to get to know every single one of them on our property. Where they are located, what kind they are, how healthy they are, how old they are…it’s just too bad I’m so awful at it. 

The first area I fail at is locating them.  If I can’t locate them…I can’t protect them. 

William and I want to geolocate trees on our property, and then transfer their coordinates to a site plan.  More specifically, we want to locate trees that are at risk of having to be removed during our build. From our anticipated driveway to our home’s exact footprint, there are certain trees, that if possible, we want to avoid touching entirely (like this absolutely beautiful American Beech tree…and this really cool grouping of Oaks).

I of course want to save all the trees, and I’m not totally opposed to us just living in a small two-person tent on our property and letting all the trees do what they do. But then we wouldn’t necessarily be attempting to achieve the specific Living Building Challenge standards…it would just be a “Living Challenge.” 

Anywho, you would think with almost every phone having GPS capabilities, it would not be too hard to geolocate specific trees and map them on a site plan. Especially when you are right next to a cell tower and have great service. 

But it is. It’s hard. 

I researched tree locator apps, and downloaded the most applicable one I could find: TreeSnap. The intent of the app is for users to take photos of a tree, identify it, examine its health, and then send that information to forest health research organizations. It is actually a great way to help keep track of trees that have been or are facing threats~ like the Ash tree and the invasive bug, the Emerald Ash Borer. 

However, their geolocating abilities are not as accurate as we need for our individual purposes. Some trees can be 30 to 50 feet from their original location when all the information magically uploads to the app.¹ So, that’s area one where I am not doing too hot at right now. 

The second area where I am pretty bad at in my relationship with the trees on our land, is I honestly don’t know what kind they are. 

For a while I was going around the property taking photos with the TreeSnap app of what I thought were White Oaks. I was so excited!! I was like, “Look at all of these White Oaks!” And I was measuring their diameters and estimating how high their first branches were, and sending all of this info to tree scientists.² 

Turns out, they are not White Oaks. I think they are Red Oaks. 

Maybe. 

The bark looks too similar between the two for my inexperienced tree-lover eyes. And there were no real leaves on the trees yet to help identify.³ But! There were dead leaves that had fallen over fall and winter on the ground near the trees! 

Doing a brief google search as I stood next to a Reddish Whitish Whateverish Oak tree, I learned that White Oak leaves are lobed with round edges. While Red Oak leaves are lobed with pointy edges. So, I started looking at the leaves on the ground surrounding the trees in question. A lot were pointy. So….Red Oaks?

Welp, all relationships take work! Including those with trees. While I only listed two areas I fail in… I assure you that there are more. 

Until next time dear readers!!

Shelby Aldrich

P.S. Not too long after writing this blog, a knowledgable friend clarified the Great Oak Conundrum. Both of the oaks are a variety of Red Oaks!