Albion Trees

Albion Trees is a simple web site that is being developed to give local photos and information about the street trees of Albion, Michigan.  It is an outgrowth of summer 2011 and 2013 Albion College research projects conducted by Heather Nobert,  ’12, and Luke Martin, ’14, under the direction of Dan Skean in the biology department.  At the time of this site update in August 2014, Heather is a graduate student at West Virginia University finishing up her M.S., while gainfully employed on a restoration project in Peru, and Luke is employed by Roadview, a consulting firm in Madison, Wisconsin.  Both of these alums have excellent science backgrounds and GIS skills that led to good jobs.

To use the site, just click on the common name of a tree species in the column on the right. Once on a species page, click on a thumbnail image to view that image.  Click on the image again to return to the species page.  You may also scroll through the larger images by clicking on the arrows at the base of each image.

During the course of our project, we identified, measured, mapped and examined the overall condition of Albion city trees found in the strip of land between the sidewalk and street, the area known as the “tree lawn” or “parkage.”  We sampled all parkage in Albion that was bound by a street curb on one side and a sidewalk on the other.  In the manuscript we are preparing, we address questions about tree diversity, size, condition, and how they are related to neighborhood age and property values. This research was supported by Albion College’s Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (FURSCA).

Our little web site is not yet complete, but includes the most common of the 79 tree species that we found in the parkage.  In total we collected data on 3,340 trees.

The photographs on this site are exclusively from trees in Albion, nearly all of them taken by Dan using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 digital camera or an iPhone 5C.  For the most part, any text refers to observations made specifically on Albion trees.  Many other web sites provide species descriptions, growing information etc.  For Michigan native species, Michigan Flora Online is an extremely valuable reference.  For non-native species, The Plant List has been used as our standard for scientific names.

We are grateful for the support of FURSCA and for the support of the City of Albion and its previous City Manager, Mike Herman, who is currently a member of the City Tree Committee.  We also thank Albion’s Tree Committee, which is chaired by Melissa Wyss.  Shannon Haight, Albion’s Assessor, provided us with valuable property value information.  We are especially grateful for the help provided by Brent Thelen, Calhoun County’s extremely knowledgeable GIS Coordinator.  Finally, Albion’s former urban forester, Susan Crawford Rieske, has been very helpful in answering our questions about the trees of Albion.

Any identification mistakes or inaccurate information presented in this web site is our responsibility.  Get out in Albion and find us more species, and better specimens and photos than the ones we have highlighted!

We hope you enjoy this site!!

Dan, Heather, & Luke