mapping newbie

[David Taylor]

Hi.

I'm an arborist in Australia and interested in plotting the position of trees on maps. I'm here to learn.

David.

[Josiah VE]

Welcome to the Guild David!

Well, I would certainly be clueless on that subject, but there might be someone around here who might be able to help.

[David Taylor]

Welcome to the Guild David!

Well, I would certainly be clueless on that subject, but there might be someone around here who might be able to help.

Hi Josiah

Thanks. I posted a better explanation in a thread since the only other forum I've been quite active on likes different subjects in different threads. Don't worry about it being about trees, though. It could just as easily be about houses or restaurants.

[waldronate]

Is this the sort of thing where you attach notes to trees with big copper nails (so that the nails don't corrode and ruin the notes)?

[David Taylor]

Is this the sort of thing where you attach notes to trees with big copper nails (so that the nails don't corrode and ruin the notes)?

Haha I'm guessing you are referring to the old wives' tale about copper nails killing trees. It's usually not going to affect a healthy specimen. Yes though, it's the digital version of sticking notes to trees

[waldronate]

Nails of any sort are bad for the chainsaws. It's true that the amount of copper salts that come off nails probably won't get enough into the living parts of the tree to do much damage unless you're using literally pounds of them.

[raydon12]

David, I haven't been able to pin down the precise reference, but I recall reading an article a while back where a city was using GPS and GIS software to map every tree managed by the city to manage specific historic trees and species. If you're plotting the trees on paper maps, I'd imagine it would be much like the archaeological resources we plotted on the American USGS maps before the use of GPS and easily accessible GIS. We basically just plot distance and bearing in relation to known landmarks and used basic triangulation.

Don

[David Taylor]

I remember reading about that tree plotting too, Don. I'll try googling it. Fortunately I expect I won't have to triangulate anything in this age of apps.