West Point Agronomist/Arborist Phil Koury had a problem. The U.S. Military Academy installation tree survey had last been completed in the mid 1990s, and it existed only on three-ring binders in his office, making the data inaccessible to the public. The survey really needed both an update and a transformation into a digital format, but a firm would charge tens of thousands of dollars to perform that work.
This expense wasn’t in his budget, so he started asking if the Cadet Environmental Club, or some other community organization, might be able to help.
Girl Scout Maureen Dacunto also had a problem. She had noticed that most trees on post had a quarter-sized silver tag on them with an inventory number etched into it, but it told you nothing about the tree.
Dacunto wanted to know what type it was. She had another problem too — she and her friend Ava Nowicki needed to plan, coordinate and execute a project to earn the coveted Silver Award, a challenging endeavor requiring at least 50 hours of service to their community.
Enter 2nd Lt. Allen Sparks, a U.S. Military Academy 2021 graduate and a cadet at the time who was an environmental science major in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. At the time, Sparks was looking for a project to fulfill the requirements for an independent study research course.
He had taken a course in Geospatial Information Science (GIS), another offering of his department, so when he got wind of the need to update the tree survey, he immediately saw a way to use his knowledge of both disciplines to make a difference.
Working with Koury and GIS tech Jake Prickett, Sparks developed a web-based survey form that could be filled out using a mobile phone. The survey enabled a person to collect data on a particular tree, such as its species and diameter, as well as a photo; most importantly, it automatically geotagged the location of the tree.
This enabled all the information about the tree to be consolidated into a cloud-based geospatial database, thus making it available to anyone with an internet connection. This solved the problem of Koury’s three-ring binders.
Another challenge remained though, and that was the requirement to actually re-inventory the thousands of trees on post. Koury created a new series of blue tags that could be hammered into each tree, physically placing a new unique serial number onto each tree that could be matched to the one in the geospatial database. Sparks and Koury piloted the system by tagging over 200 trees in the Cadet Area and around The Plain, but much work remained.
That’s when the Girl Scouts stepped in. Sparks and Koury trained them on the system, and they went to work, starting in the Trophy Point Area and moving down into the area around Shea Stadium.
All told, they tagged more than 600 trees, making a significant dent in the Central Post Area.
“The hardest part of the tagging was to identify the type of tree, but we used the Leaf Snap app and Eastern Trees Field Guide, which helped a lot,” Dacunto said. “But eventually we were able to identify many of the trees by sight.”
Dacunto and Nowicki have since passed the torch to Girl Scout Troop 168, who is extending the inventory down Washington Road and beyond.
The updated survey will be beneficial to the community in a number of ways.
“Tree surveys enable communities to effectively manage their urban forests, and also to calculate benefits such as stormwater runoff reduction and carbon sequestration,” said Dr. Patrick Baker, associate professor in the environmental science program. “In addition, the tagged trees are an amazing resource for my ecology class. With a short walk, cadets can find and identify 25-30 native tree species in the living laboratory of West Point.”
As an added bonus, the survey is accessible to the community. The red dots on the map represent individual trees, and clicking on them brings up a window with their blue tag number, species, diameter and photo.
It was a unique collaboration of garrison, faculty, cadet and community resources that made the project possible.
“This survey was in great need and anytime I can engage the cadets and the community it is a win-win for everyone,” Koury said.
“One of the coolest things about the project is that when I come back here in 20 years, the tags will still be there,” Dacunto said. “And I can tell people Ava and I put them there.”
So next time you see a blue tag on a tree at West Point, take note of its number and look it up. And know that it took a village, working together, to place it there.