Malia Nanbara

Americorp Intern

Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife

Background on the National Big Tree Competition

The Big Tree competition is run by American Forests and strives to find the largest trees of particular species in the nation.

• The trees are assigned points based on their height, circumference, and crown spread.

copyright © 2006 Patrick Burke

National Big Tree website

The purpose of the American Forest Big Tree competition is “to preserve and promote the iconic stature of these living monarchs and to educate people about the key role that these remarkable trees and forests play in sustaining a healthy

environment.”

The Hawaii Big Tree Competition

Our native species are threatened by development, fire, changes in climate, invasive species, and disease.

This year Hawaii has updated the species list to include 21 of Hawaii’s native or Polynesian introduced species.

Currently, Hawaii has 6 prospective champions

The Big Tree competition will be used as an outreach and education tool for the public.

The ArcGIS online map, with its unique feature of being accessible on smart phones and tablets will reach the public in a way GIS has never done before.

Applying the Big Tree Competition to ArcGIS online ArcGIS online allows access to GIS without

downloading the desktop version of the program by allowing access to mapping online.

This makes ArcGIS online available whenever you have internet, allowing GIS to be accessed from smartphones and tablets.

The Hawaii Big Tree program is using ArcGIS online to engage the public through allowing them to find these trees and their data using their smartphones and tablets.

Possible ways that public can contribute

Phone app that takes picture and includes gps point and send to us

Use my map and create an editable layer to drop a point where they found a tree

Email us with the information

Acknowledgements Irene Sprecher and Sheri Mann, DLNR- Division of

Forestry and Wildlife, Forestry.

Sheri Shannon, American Forests- Big Tree Competition

Royce Jones, Esri- Hawaii-Pacific Region Manager

For more information please visit our Hawaii Big Tree Competition Website

http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/dofaw/forestry/big-trees

Malia Nanbara

Malia.Y.Nanbara@hawaii.gov

http://bit.ly/wFYvuJ