Join our citizen science project by adopting a local tree and photographing it throughout the year. Together, we’ll create a unique photographic record of urban trees and help researchers understand how they grow, change and respond to our changing climate.
By taking regular photos from the same location, you’ll help build a detailed picture of seasonal change in trees. Your contributions could help researchers investigate:
The FUTURES Digital Forest will help researchers like Dr Tommaso Jucker, and the Selva Lab. Their work explores how trees and forests respond to environmental change and what forests of the future might look like in a warming world.
By contributing just a few photos each year, you’ll help create valuable scientific data while building a lasting record of the trees that shape our towns and cities.
Taking part is easy. You choose a tree and tell us where it is, we’ll send you a Tree ID number, and then you can start uploading photos and helping us “plant” the FUTURES forest. Once your tree is registered each photo upload is simple.
We recommend choosing a tree near your home, school, workplace or another place you visit regularly. This makes it easier to take photos over time.
While you are with the tree, take your first photo and find the tree’s What3Words location (a simple way of identifying an exact location using three words) or drop a pin on Google Maps and save the location.
We need to give your tree an ID number so we can keep all your pictures of it together, and to be able to let you know about the project, so we need you to register your tree using this really short form: FUTURES Forests – Tree Registration
Take a picture of your tree once a week or every two weeks, and look at whether it’s doing anything interesting! Remember the tips (below) for getting the tree in about the same place each time, and then upload your photos using the link emailed to you when you registered or from a reminder email.
We’ve also installed some tree photo stations on the University of Bristol grounds. If you see a station, pop your phone in the cradle, snap a picture, and use the QR code at the site to upload it!
Wait a little while for us to create a gallery of your tree (and the rest of the FUTURES forest) changing over time on the FUTURES website. While you wait, you could use the resources linked below to find out more about your tree.
To help researchers track seasonal changes, try to take each photo from roughly the same place and angle. It doesn’t have to be perfect – small differences are absolutely fine. The aim is simply to make each new photo look as similar as possible to the previous one. There are a couple of ways to get your images to line up.
Apps such as Apollo Camera Overlay let you view your previous tree photo while taking a new one. This makes it much easier to line up each image with the last.
You don’t need a special app. You can use your previous photo as a guide.
When taking your first photo:
When taking future photos:
Remember: regular photos are much more important than perfect alignment. Even if your photos don’t match exactly, they can still provide valuable information for researchers.
Want to identify your tree? Explore the Woodland Trust’s Tree ID guide and a free Tree ID A-Z, along with printable resources for helping children.
If your tree is in a public space in Bristol, you may be able to find it on Bristol City Council’s tree database map, which lists many trees and their species Trees | Open Data Bristol
You could also try iNaturalist, a free app (search your app store) that helps identify plants and animals while contributing observations to scientific research. Or try Tree Identifier’s activities for children, which include an AI Tree Identifier tool.
Could your tree be an ancient tree? The Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Guide explains the signs to look for and why these remarkable trees are so important. If you find one you could add it to the Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Inventory
Trees support a huge range of wildlife. Use the BugLife guide to identify insects and other invertebrates, and the BirdSpot Identifier to discover which birds may be visiting your tree.
The lichens growing on a tree can provide clues about local air quality because different species tolerate pollution differently. You could find out about the air quality around your tree by looking at the lichens and other plants growing on it using the OPAL Air Survey Booklet and Lichen Guide.
As trees grow, they store carbon captured from the atmosphere. The Natural History Museum provides a guide to estimate how much carbon your tree may be storing.
Explore curriculum-linked activities and resources to extend participation in FUTURES Forest and investigate trees in greater depth.