Virtually Track Your Tree with yegTreeMap

News Release
Virtually Track Your Tree with yegTreeMap

To help celebrate Alberta’s annual Arbor Day, the City of Edmonton has launched yegTreeMap – an online map allowing people to register trees they plant in their yard or on public property.

“Whether you want to identify the tree on your boulevard, find edible fruit trees on public land, or map a tree planted in your own yard, yegTreeMap can be useful for everyone. Community groups can also use the tree map to log stewardship activities,” said Community Greening Coordinator, Nicole Fraser. “This new tree map is the first of its kind in Canada and is a fun, interactive way people can help build Edmonton’s tree inventory.”

Once people register their tree, yegTreeMap tracks the energy conservation, stormwater filtration, carbon dioxide reduction and air quality benefits the tree provides. This tool also allows people to search for trees in their neighbourhood or a specific address. The map already contains data collected from the City’s tree inventory and is updated on a regular basis.

To recognize the influence Arbor Day trees have had on our urban landscape, the City encourages people who have planted an Arbor Day tree to share their unique tree story and photo online once they have registered it on yegTreeMap.

The City of Edmonton Arbor Day tradition began in the early 1950s. The City distributed evergreen seedlings to all Grade 1 students in Edmonton, and soon the Province of Alberta followed suit and began providing seedlings for every Grade 1 student. Each year over 15,000 children receive seedlings in Alberta.

People are also encouraged to support urban forestry within their community by volunteering for one of many naturalization or horticultural programs running throughout the spring and summer, such as Root for Trees, the Edmonton Horticultural Society, and the Edmonton Master Naturalist program.

For more information, visit edmonton.ca/trees or edmonton.ca/rootfortrees.