Brief description of the organization
Tree Trust is an Ontario-based environmental non-profit focused on protecting mature “legacy” trees through arborist care, public education, and community fundraising. Started through the Elora Environment Centre in 2019, it helps local chapters identify significant older trees, raise money for their care, and preserve tree canopy across communities. Its core idea is simple: planting new trees matters, but protecting big, old trees is also critical because they store carbon, support biodiversity, manage stormwater, and provide benefits young trees cannot yet match.
Problem area
The project will begin with a needs assessment to determine what kind of internal system would create the most new value for Tree Trust, rather than simply documenting work already underway.
The project should remain open to the strongest avenue students uncover. That may include looking at what other countries, municipalities, and leading researchers are doing, then packaging the best current thinking on mature tree care and asset management into something useful for Tree Trust and its arborists.
The central problem students will explore is how Tree Trust can better track, manage, and communicate the value of the mature trees under its care. Tree Trust currently has a growing portfolio of approximately 100 trees, but there is an opportunity to create a more structured system for tracking each tree’s species, age, condition, maintenance needs, care history, risk factors, and estimated environmental or community value.
This project would help Tree Trust move toward a more professional, evidence-based asset management approach for mature trees, while also creating outputs that can support operations, arborist coordination, funder reporting, and public storytelling.
Main objectives
- Conduct a needs assessment with Tree Trust to understand how tree information is currently tracked and what gaps exist.
- Interview arborists and internal users to determine what information is most useful for tree care, maintenance planning, and long-term monitoring.
- Review best practices in tree inventory, mature tree care, urban forest asset management, and arborist decision-support systems.
- Design a practical tree inventory and asset management framework tailored to Tree Trust’s needs.
- Build a prototype system or database for tracking Tree Trust-managed trees over time.
- Explore how the system could quantify and communicate the value of Tree Trust trees at the organization-wide level.
- Provide recommendations for how the tool could support arborist training, better care planning, funding proposals, and future software development.
Scope of work
- Interview Tree Trust staff, board members, and arborists to understand current workflows, pain points, data gaps, and desired outputs.
- Review leading practices in mature tree care, tree risk assessment, urban forest asset management, and digital tree inventory systems.
- Speak with Tree Trust arborists and other experts to understand what information matters most for planning, maintenance, tree health, and long-term care.
- Define the key fields Tree Trust should track, such as species, size, age estimate, condition, health concerns, maintenance history, recommended interventions, location, ownership context, and estimated value.
- Build a simple database, spreadsheet-based tool, dashboard, or low-fidelity software prototype that Tree Trust could use to manage its tree portfolio.
- Explore methods for estimating the environmental, economic, and community value of mature trees, including canopy benefits, cooling, carbon storage, stormwater benefits, and replacement value.
- Test the prototype with Tree Trust users and refine it based on feedback.
- Provide a prototype system, user guide, best-practice summary, final report, and recommendations for future implementation or software development.
Deliverables
- Report
- Website
- Presentation
- Resources
- Survey tools
- New protocols/processes
Team meeting frequency
Monthly
Skills and training required
- Research and analytical skills
- User interviews and needs assessment
- Database or spreadsheet design
- GIS or mapping skills
- Basic understanding of urban forestry and arboriculture
- Systems thinking and workflow design
- Data visualization
- Report writing and presentation skills
- Ability to translate expert input into a practical tool
Resources required
- Tree Trust’s existing tree records, where available
- Tree Trust staff, board members, and arborists
- Sample tree data for prototype development
- Arborist input on condition, care needs, and maintenance categories
- Public tools or methodologies for calculating tree value
- GIS or mapping software, if location-based features are included
- Spreadsheet, database, or dashboard tools such as Excel, Airtable, Notion, ArcGIS, Power BI, or similar platforms
- University library resources and academic research databases
- Tree Trust communications or brand materials for final presentation outputs
NDA or a commercialization agreement for this project?
Yes