American Association of Amateur Arborists

..taking tree walks is much like birding, except the trees stay put. Both are exercises in awareness.

The diversity of plant life, trees in particular, is truely amazing. Many of us are fortunate to live in the midst of an arboretum. Yet many of us, and our neighbors, are unaware of that variety, unable to "see the trees for the forest", to see the detail, the small picture of their immediate environment. The function of ArborMaps is to give neighbors a guide to the trees in their neighborhood, in local parks, or in public gardens. These maps provide a great deal of information about the trees without having to tag each one.

The few maps presented here are examples of what you could assemble to help others "see the trees." Maps of public gardens could be donated to those gardens for distribution; maps of neighborhoods could be given to neighborhood organizations.

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Please read this Very Important Message about ArborMaps.

The good news is that the ArborMaps are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. This ensures that the pages are an exact copy of the source document which is important to preserve the dimensions of the tags.

The bad news is that you might not have the required Adobe Acrobat reader on your computer.

The good news is that the Adobe Acrobat reader is free. Just connect to the Adobe Web site, download the reader, and install it on your machine.

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ArborMaps usually are two-sided maps so they can be copied onto a single sheet of paper. Each tree is located on the map with a mnemonic symbol (eg, RO for Red Oak), and the legend or key to these symbols is contained on one or both sides.

Some Acrobat PDF files contain an index of the symbols used on each map sheet. If the index entry contains an "=", then it is a link to an ArborTag which further illustrates the species. If the entry contains only a colon (":") then no ArborTag yet exists. Note that Adobe Acrobat 2.1 cannot follow these links. You must download and use the Acrobat 3.0 version for this feature to work.

The National Zoo - West Side

"Zoo" is an abbreviation of Zoological Garden and, indeed, the National Zoo in Washington DC has over 150 species of trees on display, not to mention a wide variety of flowers and other plants. This is the Connecticut Avenue entrance. (143 K)

The National Zoo - East Side

These maps are being distributed by the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) at the park so the Zoo can be a start of a visitor's adventure with both the Animal and Plant kingdoms. (94K)

Eaglebeak Row

Eaglebeak Row defines a small neighborhood in the Village of Long Reach in the new town of Columbia, Maryland. Each of the streets in this neighborhood were named after a line in the poetry of Robinson Jeffers. Most important is that there are over 60 different species in this small area. This is ArborMap 1 of the Eaglebeak ArborWalk (100K)

Wingborne Court

Wingborne Court is an extension of the Eaglebeak ArborWalk (above). Over thirty different species are encountered within a two block stroll. These maps are testimonies to the variety of trees in our suburban arboreta. (111K)

Asian Collection

This is a map of the Asian Collection at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC. Visit this site for a glimpse of a Japanese Blue Oak, and Igiri Tree, the famous Dove Tree, a beautiful Taiwan Cryptomeria and many more. As many of the species are exotic there are few links to ArborTags. (100K)

Chevy Chase, Section 3

The first of two maps encompassing a 5x4 block area in Montgomery County, MD. This is one of Washington's older suburbs, and the diversity of species reflects this. Pecans, Cedars, Horse Chestnuts and Umbrella Pine are found in this neighborhood. (139K)

Chevy Chase, Section 3

The second of two maps encompassing this suburban area. The map will be part of a booklet which briefly traces the history of this part of Chevy Chase. (131K)

Patterson Park, Baltimore

Patterson Park is one of Baltimore's original arboreta. It began its development in the 1850's and some of the specimens date still from that era. In particular look for the Osage Orange and the Amur Cork Trees.

Patterson Park East

The eastern half of the park is quite recent and boasts of avenues of Little Leaf Lindens. Find the White China Fir memorializing the Vietnam veterans.

James Madison University, VA

Begun as a womens college nearly a century ago the campus has grown to become one of Virginia's premier arboreta. Still with magnificent American Elm, European Larch, Osage Orange and Goldenrain trees, the campus itself can serve as an educational resource for its 13000 students.

James Madison University, pt2

Newer than the Front Campus, this portion of the University still has been carefully planned and preserved. Eastern Hophornbeam are a delightful find, and the century-old Pecans provide expansive shade.

Catonsville High School, MD

Originally the 19th Century estate of Gustav Lurman, "Farmlands" was extravagantly planted with both native and imported specimen. While much reduced in scale the campus still contains fine examples of Bald Cypress, Dawn Redwood and Pond Cypress as well as Plum Yew, Palownia and a great Gingko tree.

Catonsville High School, pt2

The list of over fifty different species of trees is a clear indication that this estate/school still represents a significant resource for education in the Baltimore area.

Preparing an ArborMap.

The purpose of an ArborMap is to help others identify the trees, not to identify property lines or become a plan for landscape design. Accuracy of scale, orientation, and physical features is not required so long as the maps are understandable. Nor is completeness a requisite; only the trees which can be seen from public pathways and streets need to be identified. However it is often frustrating for an amateur to come upon the one tree in the neighborhood that is missing from the map.

A few suggestions, however, on making such maps:

• They should cover a walkable area;
• they should encompass at least fifty species;
• outlines of streets andother artifacts are helpful;
• they should contain a legend/key to the symbols used on the map;
• they should contain a North arrow;
• they should be dated.