Phone can help you see forest through the trees
QR-code posters are scattered through the woods to create educational adventure for tree cachers
Deep in the dark hollows of GTA forests, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, adventure seekers with an eye for the unusual wander the woodsy depths in search of a few special trees.
The adventurers call themselves tree cachers, a reference to the collection of miniature QR-code posters scattered through the forest, which when scanned reveal descriptions, photos and fun facts about the trees.
The emerging pastime already has a fierce following in U.S. and European cities, where tree hunters are treated to souvenirs and little gifts as a reward for their sleuthing. They use Reddit and other online forums to tease out the next trees to be found, and share their discoveries with fellow nature lovers.
But the game has only recently crept into the GTA, with a conservation-focused twist developed along five trails tagged by the Association for Canadian Educational Resources (ACER). Two more paths have been marked near Niagara Falls.
The latest iteration — the work of environmental science graduate Nimesha Basnayaka — has popped up on the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus.
That location, says the 21-year-old Brampton resident, “is less of a scavenger hunt and more of a self-guided nature walk” meant to educate tree sleuths about conservation and climate change.
The idea, she says, is for people to wander the trail discovering gems such as a white oak more than a century old, the endangered eastern flowering dogwood or the London plane tree species, with its “cool, tan bark that looks peeled off.”
If the tree hunters are too young to own a phone or traverse the forest alone, she said, “the trail allows kids to teach adults about how to use the technology, and the adults teach the kids about the trees.”
ACER founding president Alice Casselman has yet to analyze the data to learn which trees are scanned the most, but she hopes that with summer approaching, interactions will skyrocket and tagging opportunities will emerge in other green spaces.
At the top of her expansion wish list are Toronto’s waterfront trail and High Park.
To tag both — a process that involves scouring the forest for unique trees, measuring their diameters, re- searching their species in the treepedia and marking them with a geolocation and poster — she estimates would cost less than $10,000 for each trail.
“Sometimes park benches cost that much, and they don’t promote walking or exploring,” she said. “If we can use the trees as a mechanism to teach about conservation, then it is worth it.”