Zoom in to any tree

by Shane Sody

It’s been a long time coming, but the City of Adelaide has taken up our idea of a mapped resource identifying and giving you information about each of the tens of thousands of trees that it looks after in your Park Lands.

Back in 2021 we suggested that Adelaide should follow Melbourne’s initiative, with an “interactive forest map” to identify each tree, by its species and location.

A reminder from 2021: APA’s Valdis Dunis suggested what the City Council has now delivered!

Now you can do that, with the new City of Adelaide Urban Forest Map. You can zoom in, or search the trees in your favourite part of the Park Lands, find out what's growing, report any tree damage or ill-health, and even write a love letter to any tree you like!

Click on the image to go to the City of Adelaide’s interactive urban forest map.

The mapping project is not complete. There are areas where work remains to be done, to complete the picture. There are three types of missing/incorrect data:

  • areas under the control of State Government agencies - e.g. Botanic Park, the Botanic Garden in Park 11, the West Terrace Cemetery in Park 23; and the “biomedical precinct” including the site of the new Women's and Children’s Hospital in Park 27;

  • areas where trees that are shown on the map have recently vanished: chopped down by State Government contractors to make way for new infrastructure (e.g. in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2));

  • areas under the control of the City of Adelaide where the mapping is not yet completed, e.g. the southern part of Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16) and Edwards Park (the southern part of Park 23 off Anzac Highway).

Nevertheless, it’s still a great resource, and will be useful for APA to update or improve our Trail Guides and Guided Walks.

The most immediate benefit of this map is to illustrate the danger looming over hundreds of trees in Possum Park /Pirltawardli (Park 1) from the Premier’s proposed massive re-development in that Park.

Along with the urban forest map, the City of Adelaide has also published a short video: “10 Reasons to Love Trees”