History of Barton Arboretum Record Keeping

The Barton Arboretum at Medford Leas consists of the campuses at Medford and Lumberton. Arboretum documentation primarily consists of records and maps of significant trees, but also includes records and maps of trails, benches, birdhouses and other plantings, especially those in the Courtyard apartments (Courts). Eventually anything related to the arboretum may be included. All the records include information about each item and most significantly, its location.

Medford Leas residents and staff have been active over the years keeping track of the trees in the Arboretum. The original paper records are in several formats and need to be reviewed and integrated if possible with the electronic records. The original electronic arboretum database was created in 2005, by professional surveyors (perhaps the Davey Tree Expert Company) and kept in a Microsoft Access Database. Although the database included columns for a great deal of data, most of it was not filled in. The location data, however, was very precise.

At that time there was no electronic mapping software being used. If a user wanted to locate a particular tree, he would either consult paper maps or copy and paste the latitude and longitude information obtained from the Access Database into Google Earth. This was in 2005 and there were not a lot of alternatives. In about 2009 Medford Leas decided to use a commercial Geographical Information System (GIS) software product called Manifold. This solved the problem of a database with integrated mapping features, but it was expensive, had a steep learning curve and did not provide access to anyone except those who had a computer with a license for the software.

The next choice for record keeping was the free Google product, Google Fusion Tables. Google Fusion Tables were essentially spreadsheets with special functions such as the ability to take geographic data like street address or latitude and longitude and plot it on a map. Unfortunately, Google discontinued Fusion Tables in 2019.

This presentation (pdf with slides and presenter's notes) gives a more complete history of arboretum record keeping at Medford Leas.

Arboretum record keeping is currently (2025) primarily a resident volunteer function using free software that is usable on Windows, Mac and Linux computers as well as mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. This material is primarily cloud based using Google Workspace products on the Medford Leas (medfordleas.net) domain. The account used is arboretum@medfordleas.net. Data is stored on the Google Drive associated with that account. Thus, all data is stored and available in the “cloud” and is not restricted to one computer or user, although local backups are also kept.

Software Requirements

The arboretum has three requirements for the software used for record keeping in the arboretum,

1. A repository for the data. Database or spreadsheet software is ideal for holding the Barton Arboretum data. There is a separate row for each tree, with columns for attributes of each tree. Users should be free to access the database, but the ability to make changes should be restricted in order to maintain its integrity.

2. Ability to input and update data in the field. Since the arboretum data is dynamic with trees often being added and removed, it is desirable to have a way to easily update data without necessarily having to directly deal with the database itself. This may be with a smartphone in the field verifying existing trees or updating attributes about the tree. It could also be a maintenance person entering the removal or addition of a tree from her desk using a computer. This data would be verified and entered into the database by the database administrator.

3. A way to view and use the data. Users of the Barton Arboretum database should be able to access it from a computer, a tablet or a smartphone. They should be able to search to find location and attribute data for specific trees or types of trees. They should also be able to search by any attribute, for example the height of the tree. A map of the arboretum trees will allow a user to not only find the location of a tree, but when walking about in the arboretum to see what trees are nearby.

The information on the Software page shows how we have tried to meet these requirements.

This web page, https://sites.google.com/medfordleas.net/medfordleas-arboretum, is a portal for Medford Leas residents, staff and anyone else to view the information about the arboretum which is stored on the Arboretum Google Drive and in Google Photos.

The pages linked below, Data Formats, Internet Platform, Software and Hardware, describe the equipment, software and procedures used to create, maintain and share information about the arboretum.