Experts: I work in the Yellow Community Parks Program. The State is providing Parks Plotter at no expense to Idaho urban areas with the goal that a statewide tree stock is created. It's easy to train volunteers or workers to use, it's cloud-based including photos of the individual trees. Furthermore, the reports generated from stock results offer truly necessary information that impacts urban forestry management and planning decisions. The accuracy of the GPS coordinates is fabulous, this helps for street trees, as well as for locating trees growing in parks and greenways. Data collection can be done using any device that has an internet connection, eliminating the need for expensive equipment such as a Trimble. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Parks Plotter uses Bing or Google maps. It's been my experience that either contains more current imagery. However, when you log on to collect data, Bing maps are the default map, though Google maps might be more up-to-date. I'd like it if there were a way to set the default to whichever map is more useful. Additionally, at least in the Parks Plotter program, when collecting DBH data, only even inch measurements can be recorded. Measuring growth over time, especially in younger trees, requires measurements to the 1/10th of an inch to accurately assess how vigorously a tree is growing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
