World Grove is a project to map the trees of the world through crowd-sourcing. Its also an app to explore the world of trees.
When you see a tree in the real world you can add it to World Grove by taking pictures of it and providing as much information about it as you can, such as the Common Genus (for example, its an Oak tree). Then you can submit your knowledge to the database. If someone else happens by that Oak tree and wants to know something about it they can open up World Grove, tap on the tree using the map interface, and pull up all the information you provided about the tree. If they know some more details (maybe they know its a Red Oak!) they can edit your entry and add the Common Species name. The scientific names will automatically be populated.
There is also a Tree Dictionary in World Grove. This is simply a list of trees by Common Genus and Species names which provides the scientific name of each type of tree.
As you add trees to the database you will earn points and move up in the ranks: Seed, Seedling Arborist, Apprentice Arborist, Arborist, Journeyman Arborist, and finally Master Arborist. Each level will unlock additional abilities within the app allowing you more power to edit the database. If you reach the level of Arborist you can also edit the Tree Dictionary.
Many cities track and manage their trees as a public resource. Over time look for the World Grove database to be populated with data from these already existing tree databases!
World Grove currently includes:
- Washington, DC Urban Forestry Street Trees (180,000 trees)
- New York City 2015 Street Tree Census (650,000 trees)
- All the trees added by World Grove users around the world!