It seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes you need to give evidence to city councillors: A new multi-institutional study led by UC Davis Health suggests that not all green space is created equal. Living in urban neighborhoods with more visible trees is associated with a 4% lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, while areas dominated by grass or low shrubs may be linked to higher cardiovascular risk.

The research, published in Environmental Epidemiology, analyzed more than 350 million street-level images using machine learning to distinguish between trees, grass, and other types of vegetation. The findings challenge long-held assumptions that simply adding “green space” to cities is enough to improve public health.

“Public health interventions should prioritize the preservation and planting of tree canopies,” said Peter James, associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and lead author of the study. “Urban forestry initiatives and policies that protect mature trees are likely to yield greater cardiovascular health benefits than investments in grass planting.”

Related: AI scientists from MIT get a map of a city’s trees

Why trees outperform lawns

Unlike satellite imagery, which often lumps all vegetation into one category, the researchers used street-level images—similar to what pedestrians see via platforms like Google Street View—to capture real neighborhood conditions. Deep-learning models identified trees, grass, sidewalks, cars, and other features, creating a granular picture of urban environments.

Those visual data were then linked to nearly 89,000 participants in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study, tracking 18 years of medical records and death certificates. The results were striking: More visible trees → 4% lower cardiovascular disease incidence

More grass → 6% higher incidence: Other green vegetation (shrubs, bushes) → 3% higher incidence

The protective effect of trees held steady even after accounting for air pollution, population density, regional differences, and neighborhood socioeconomic status.

Researchers suspect the negative associations with grass may be linked to pesticide use, emissions and dust from from mowing equipment, reduced cooling capacity, and weaker noise and air-pollution filtering compared to trees.

With cardiovascular disease responsible for over 900,000 deaths annually in the U.S.—nearly one in three deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—even small shifts matter.

“This opens a promising avenue: improving heart health through community-level environmental change, not just individual behavior,” said Eric B. Rimm, professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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When a 65-year-old oak tree in Steve Parker’s yard died from fungal disease, he did not cut it into firewood or haul it away. He did not erase it. He cut the tree into disks and then turned them into records that play birdsong –– a touching tribute to the years that the tree was house and home to birds and all manners of creatures.

Parker, a Texas-based sound artist known online as @parkerstevesounds played the disks of wood on a Victrola-style turntable, and from the it the wooden records emit layered avian soundscapes, transforming dead wood into a living archive. He called the project Funeral for a Tree.

I once worked on a similar project in clay. I created a series of vessels designed to hold seeds. While shaping each one, I spoke to it — prayers, fragments of thought, small conversations with the material itself. I recorded my voice and the surrounding landscape of sound into the walls of the ceramic. Today’s machines cannot retrieve those recordings. But future instruments — capable of hearing at finer scales — may. The vessels are simply waiting for the right ears.

Trees are not neutral objects. Their rings hold records of rainfall, drought, heat, and cold. Their fibers contain chemical traces of stress, recovery, and time. In scientific terms, trees are environmental witnesses. In Parker’s hands, they become storytellers.

The project was later exhibited at Ivester Contemporary in East Austin, Texas where visitors encountered both the wooden records and the physical remains of the tree itself. The installation did not explain the tree. It allowed people to sit with it.

In a time when climate loss is reported in numbers — hectares, parts per million, extinction rates — Funeral for a Tree insists on intimacy. It is easy to talk about forests. It is harder to mourn a single trunk. It’s like people fighting for Gaza or Iran or places thousands of miles beyond their city limits, but they don’t have time to call their grandmother or check on the sick boy down the street.

Parker’s work invites us to create rituals and intimacy with objects and meaning close to our homes and hearts.

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In another case of dubious Dubai, a UAE developer is making an ecological housing project and is advertising that they are uprooting ancient olive trees from the Mediterranean to plant in Dubai. We see what happens to trees planted in Dubai and then neglected. There is something deeply wrong with calling the uprooting of ancient olive trees “eco,” no matter how many studies are cited or how softly the word wellness is whispered into the sales brochure.

When Mediterranean olive trees—some said to be up to 2,500 years old—are lifted from their ancestral soil in Spain and Italy and shipped to Dubai to decorate a luxury development, this is not sustainability. It is ecological displacement dressed up as design. East tree is reported to have cost about $270,000 USD. So who is selling them?

Related: See what happens when millions of trees in Dubai are not watered

Water turned off in Abu Dhabi desert tree experiment (photo)

These trees are not ornaments but are living archives. Many took root around the time of Ancient Greece, long before real estate prospectuses and infinity pools. Olive trees anchor soil, sustain biodiversity, and hold cultural memory. They belong to landscapes shaped by centuries of climate, wind, microbes, and human care. Their value is not measured in dirhams.

Related: The value of an ancient olive tree in Israel

The idea that a tree costing AED 1 million somehow justifies its relocation is the logic of extraction, not regeneration.

Developments like MAG’s Keturah Reserve—rising in Mohammed Bin Rashid City—lean heavily on the language of biophilic design and mental wellbeing, and even point to a study on how trees are good for people. Yes, people thrive when connected to nature. But whose nature? And at what cost?

The developers say that they are going to bring the trees to their project Keturah Reserve, an apartment complex of the 533 low-rise apartments, 93 townhouses and 90 villas.

Flying centuries-old trees across continents via specialized cargo burns enormous fossil fuels. Replanting them in a desert climate—no matter how advanced the irrigation or “heritage preservation techniques”—places immense stress on organisms that evolved for Mediterranean seasons, soils, and rainfall patterns. And we’ve seen that the UAE is not capable of taking care of trees so survival rates are uncertain. Long-term ecological function is compromised. And the original landscapes are left poorer, stripped of irreplaceable elders.

“Every element enhances sustainability and harmony with the environment, so residents will thrive,” said Talal M. Al Gaddah, CEO and Founder of the Keturah luxury brand. “They bring history, calm, and a sense of permanence,” said Talal, who has conceived to build a natural gallery (Joni Mitchell called it a Tree Museum), where a forest of trees from around the world blend with art installations and sculptural dry gardens, just a short drive from Downtown Dubai.

This is not harmony with the environment but ecological laundering.

True biophilic design does not begin with removal. It begins with respect. If developers genuinely care about wellbeing, they would invest in native desert ecologies—ghaf trees, indigenous shrubs, living shade systems—species adapted to place, water scarcity, and heat. They would restore land rather than import symbolism.

Ancient olive trees should remain where they stand, rooted among the communities, farmers, birds, fungi, and histories that shaped them. They are not transferable assets. They are not centerpieces. They are elders.

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Why choosing a natural tree is better for forests, farmers, and the planet

Every December, millions of families face the same question: real tree or artificial? While artificial trees are marketed as convenient and reusable, the reality is more complex. When it comes to environmental impact, community support, and even holiday tradition, the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of choosing a Real Christmas Tree. Here’s why.

Real Christmas Trees aren’t taken from forests — they’re grown on farms. In the United States alone, 350 million trees are growing on dedicated Christmas tree farms, planted and cared for by farmers solely for holiday use. The industry supports about 15,000 farms and provides work for over 100,000 people in full- and part-time jobs.

Related: Rent a real Christmas tree

Every year, Americans purchase 25–30 million Real Christmas Trees (according to the National Christmas Tree Association), directly supporting rural economies and preserving open green space, around 350,000 acres of it. Buying real means investing in American agriculture instead of overseas manufacturing.

Unlike artificial trees, which are made of non-biodegradable plastics and can contain metal toxins like lead, real Christmas trees are entirely natural and recyclable. After the holidays, trees can be composted, turned into mulch, used in dune restoration, or donated for wildlife habitat. That’s why more than 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs operate across the US. If one doesn’t exist, consider opening one as a college project.

Real trees also ensure continuous renewal: for every tree harvested, farmers plant 1 to 3 seedlings the next spring, keeping the cycle alive. They also smell a lot better than plastic.

Most artificial trees, about 80%, according to the US Commerce Department are made in China. Their production and shipping generate significant carbon emissions, and once they are thrown away, they remain in landfills for centuries. While marketed as reusable, studies show an artificial tree must be kept at lea

rs to offset its environmental impact, and most don’t last that long. The plastic lingers probably forever.

By contrast, real Christmas trees actively clean the air as they grow. A single farmed tree can take 7 years on average to reach typical height, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen throughout its life cycle. If you rent a tree, even better.

Real Christmas trees are one of the few agricultural products grown in every US state and across Canada. The top-producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Washington and these states ship millions of trees nationwide, ensuring that most consumers can purchase a locally sourced product. Christmas tree farms are an actual business.

Buying local reduces transportation emissions and keeps holiday spending circulating within nearby communities.

Christmas tree farms don’t displace forests — they preserve working green space and prevent development. Managed tree fields provide habitat for birds and small mammals, protect soil integrity, and maintain rural ecological balance. In many areas, former agricultural land has been restored through Christmas tree cultivation.

Beyond the environmental and economic arguments, there’s something deeply meaningful about bringing home a real tree. The scent, the feel, the ritual of choosing the perfect one, even if it’s only perfect to you, well these are things an artificial tree simply can’t replicate. A real Christmas tree connects you to nature, to local growers, and to a living cycle that continues long after the decorations come down.

And if you aren’t sold, go for an alternative tree idea. Here are 8 Christmas trees that you can make without cutting down or buying a plastic tree.

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It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees… but it also stays pretty green. A famous line from Joni Mitchell’s River. If you live in cold and tree hearty Canada, cutting down a tree off your lot makes sense at Christmas time. I have thousands of young pines on my land and I cut them back every summer. They grow like weeds. But if you live in the middle of London, New York or LA, the greener option is obviously renting a potted Christmas tree. Since we covered the story a few years ago a large number of Christmas tree rental companies have opened.

Related: Rent a live potted Christmas tree in Ireland

In California there the Living Christmas Company in Southern California. They deliver. ]Rent A Living Christmas Tree in the South Bay and Monterey Bay areas. Environment-friendly rental system with drop-off and pickup. Plant Manning Tree Concern rents out live, potted Christmas trees such as redwoods and spruces. Delivery and post-holiday retrieval available in parts of California.  Fitzgeralds Floral Events provides decorated artificial Christmas tree rentals with full setup and removal services in Los Angeles and Orange County.

Related: cut Christmas trees give off nasty chemicals and allergens

You can go to a site or go online, order the tree and pick it up or if if possible have it delivered. A live tree doesn’t shed needles after a few weeks and it’s obviously the ecological choice to cutting down millions of 7 to 15 year old trees every year.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association there are about 30 million trees cut down every year. How about treading lighter on this planet by renting one? We have 8 reasons why it’s better to rent. Consider that some trees in New York are going for a few hundred dollars. Renting seems like an economical choice as well.

1. Environmentally friendly: Renting a living, potted tree keeps it alive after the holidays instead of cutting it down.

2. Reduces waste: No discarded trees piling up on sidewalks or landfills; the tree continues growing year after year.

3. Lower carbon footprint: Living trees actively absorb CO₂, and many rental companies operate locally, reducing transport emissions.

4. Supports reforestation: Most services plant the trees in parks or forests once they outgrow rental size.

5. No storage needed: Unlike artificial trees which offgas you don’t need space to store anything after the holidays.

6. Fresher and safer: A living tree doesn’t dry out, reducing fire risk and shedding fewer needles.

7. Helps local growers and nonprofits: Rentals often support small nurseries, conservation groups, or urban forest programs.

8. Easy delivery and pickup: Most services bring the tree to your door and take it away afterward — low hassle.

Ho, Ho, Ho

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Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia has initiated a major environmental-tech effort: the Al Khobar Tree Digitization Project, aiming to catalog 100,000 trees across the city. Each tree will carry an electronic tag displaying its species, geographic location, and care guidelines in both Arabic and English.

See related: MIT and its trees

The tags are integrated into a dynamic geographic database, offering planners, residents, and environmental advocates an interactive real-time view of the city’s urban forest.

This initiative is a flagship component of Al Khobar’s broader ambition to emerge as a green smart city, aligned with national sustainability frameworks such as the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI). Under SGI, Saudi Arabia aims to plant 10 billion trees, protect 30 percent of its terrestrial and marine areas by 2030, foster green jobs, and promote private‑sector participation in ecosystem restoration.

We’ve written about its mangrove plantation efforts and this new project ensures trees will be cared for and protected.

Technology meets ecology in this project—each tagged tree contributes to data-driven urban forest management. Tree health, maintenance needs, watering schedules, and environmental metrics could be monitored centrally—paving the way for smarter irrigation, improved urban planning, and enhanced biodiversity management.

Starting with the first 10,000 trees along Al Khobar’s southern and northern corniches, waterfront zones, and main thoroughfares, the project will expand city‑wide. It sets a foundation for integrating green infrastructure, citizen engagement, and sustainable tourism—an urban ecosystem that’s both cultivated and tracked through smart tech.

This effort complements other transformative developments across the country—such as Riyadh’s Green Riyadh afforestation program, NEOM’s futuristic design projects, and “The Line”—reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s shift toward eco‑innovative urbanism.

Key Benefits: Urban Forest Health Monitoring: Real-time data enables proactive detection of disease, pests, droughts, or other threats.

Public Awareness & Participation: Bilingual labels make tree information accessible—encouraging community connection to nature.

Green Investment Attraction: Signals a city primed for green infrastructure development and eco‑tech partnerships.

Enriched Visitor Experience: Imagine interactive “tree walks” along the corniche—where every tree is a point of smart engagement.

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In the dense, storm-soaked rainforests of Panama, a new ecological mystery has been cracked open by lightning—and it’s pointing straight to the tonka bean tree (Dipteryx oleifera). A recent study reveals that these tall, unassuming trees might be using lightning as a secret weapon to wipe out nearby competition.

“Seeing that there are trees that get struck by lightning and they’re fine was just mind blowing,” Evan Gora recalled. Over time, the team encountered other D. oleifera trees thriving after getting hit, so they decided to take a closer look.

Published in New Phytologist, the research led by forest ecologist Gora of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies shows that tonka trees can survive lightning strikes that kill surrounding trees and vines, giving them a competitive boost in the long game of forest survival. “There’s a quantifiable, detectable hazard of living next to Dipteryx oleifera,” said Gora in an interview with Science News.

How Does a Tree Survive Lightning?

Lightning is one of the leading natural causes of tree death in tropical forests. The raw voltage and heat from a strike can instantly boil sap, splinter wood, and reduce a once-living organism to charcoal. But not tonka trees.

Using a custom-built system of sensors and cameras, Gora and his team recorded 18 confirmed lightning strikes over a three-year period. Not only did D. oleifera often take the brunt of the strikes, it consistently survived, while neighboring trees and parasitic vines wrapped around its trunk perished.

This self-sacrificial behavior isn’t just a fluke—it appears to be a strategic evolutionary edge. Over a tonka tree’s lifetime, researchers estimate that its ability to outlive competitors via lightning could lead to a 14-fold increase in seed production. Read the full study in New Phytologist

Why This Is So Cool (And So Important to Science)

Evolutionary Ingenuity: This could be one of the first documented cases of an organism using a natural destructive force to its advantage, like an ecological superpower. It’s akin to a fire-adapted species, but with lightning as the fire.

New View on Forest Dynamics: Lightning is often overlooked in forest ecology. Gora’s work adds a new dimension to understanding tree mortality and regeneration in tropical ecosystems, where every inch of canopy matters.

Potential Applications in Climate Modeling: As lightning strikes are expected to increase with global warming (NASA study), understanding how trees respond could help model how rainforests may change—especially regarding species composition and carbon storage. Colin Price does this with lightning as well, using cell phones.

Smart Tree Strategy: While other trees avoid becoming conductors, the tonka might actually attract lightning by growing taller or modifying their structure to be more conductive—though more research is needed to confirm this behavior.

“This is a reminder that survival in the rainforest is about more than just growing fast or tall. It’s about playing the long game—even if that game includes dancing with lightning,” said Gora.

Tonka Beans: Vanilla Alternative with a Toxic Twist

Tonka beans, the seeds of the Dipteryx odorata tree native to South America, have long fascinated chefs and perfumers for their sweet, complex aroma. Rich in coumarin, a natural compound that smells like vanilla with hints of almond, cinnamon, and clove, tonka beans have often been used as a cost-effective substitute for vanilla, especially when vanilla prices soar. In culinary settings, just a small amount of grated tonka bean can flavor desserts, chocolates, and cocktails with an intoxicating scent.

However, the story of tonka beans carries a darker note. Coumarin, while naturally occurring, is toxic in high doses. Consuming large amounts can lead to liver damage and, in extreme cases, death. As a result, the United States banned the use of tonka beans in food back in 1954.

Despite this, tonka beans remain legal for use in perfumery and are still prized in gourmet circles elsewhere in the world, particularly in European fine dining, where Michelin star chefs use them carefully in small, regulated quantities.

Interestingly, the amount of coumarin one would need to consume to risk serious harm is far greater than what is typically found in a single dish. Still, because coumarin toxicity is cumulative and unpredictable among individuals, the FDA has maintained its strict stance.

Today, tonka beans occupy a curious niche: a forbidden ingredient that has gained a cult following among adventurous cooks, symbolizing both the allure and danger of natural flavors.

If the idea of trees using lightning to kill the competition blew your mind, check out these other wild, science-backed nature stories from Green Prophet:

Why Wombats Have Cube-Shaped Poop: Scientists finally figured out how wombats shape their poop into perfect cubes — it’s all in their intestines. Read it on Green Prophet

Plants Can Scream When They’re Stressed: researchers found that tomato and tobacco plants emit ultrasonic sounds when under stress. Read it on Green Prophet

The post Tonka Bean Trees Attract Lightning to Win the Rainforest Arms Race—And Science Thinks That’s Electrifying appeared first on Green Prophet.

In Cork, Ireland you can rent a Christmas tree.

Every year Christian families have the same question at Christmas? Should we buy a plastic Christmas tree and pack it up in the box every year, and use it for the next 15 years, or should we buy a real tree?

Real trees are expensive and have their own hassles with procuring one if you live in the city, and getting rid of it along with its shedding needles. Plus, who wants to but a 10-year old tree whose destiny it is to die?

Entrepreneurs all over Europe from Paris to Ireland are coming up with novel ideas: Christmas tree rentals. You place an order for a tree, it gets delivered in time for the celebration, with its roots intact in a pot. You keep it watered and free from tinsel and when the time comes they pick it up and take care of it for the next holiday.

You can find the services in Paris, Cork, Ireland and in some cities in Germany –– companies renting out Christmas trees in the pot every year. Our friend in Paris says she has tried this service and it’s great! You rent a tree and then return it alive after the holidays. The trees last about 7 years from when rentals start and when they get too big for anyone’s home or office, they are planted in the forest to live out their next decades. This is a great way to reduce carbon emissions.

As an alternate, if you can’t find a tree rental company near you, you can turn to companies that sell live trees, and if you have ample space in your yard or have agreement with a local park or school you can plant the tree after the holiday, keeping it in its original pot.

In California, you can reach out to The Living Christmas Company. Trees are pricey at several hundred dollars. But they have unique varieties like the Aleppo Pine, a variety that hails from Syria.

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Every culture in the world has a Slow Food tradition. At the heart of it all is homemade food, made with love, from local ingredients. While Saudi Arabia has been known for its excess it has also been featured in humble projects like the open fridge concept.

Now, Slow Food Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the Culinary Arts Commission, will participate in the Saudi Feast Festival from November 27 to December 6 at the Abadi AlJohar Arena in Jeddah.

Under the theme Taste the Culture, Slow Food invites visitors to experience an immersive celebration of Saudi Arabia’s rich culinary heritage, with a special focus on the Ark of Taste program—a global initiative that catalogs endangered food products. The Ark of Taste is a living catalog of delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction.

At the heart of the event lies Slow Food’s commitment to preserving traditional food products, highlighting the work of local communities across the Kingdom who are dedicated to safeguarding their culinary traditions.

The Slow Food presence at the festival will showcase the diverse and unique flavors of Saudi cuisine, with particular emphasis on more than 120 Ark of Taste products representing the food diversity of the 13 Saudi Regions, from Al-Hassawi Rice to Figra Mountain Honey, from Iqt to Al-Bakaya Date Palm.

A key highlight of the event will be the launch of the Arabic edition of Good, Clean and Fair, the seminal book by Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, which embodies the values of the Slow Food movement.

Visitors will have the opportunity to engage with Slow Food Saudi Arabia by signing up for membership, nominating new products for the Ark of Taste, and exploring Slow Food Travel experiences—unique opportunities to discover Saudi Arabia’s diverse culinary landscapes in greater depth.

What are some examples of protected Slow Food from Saudi Arabia?

Currently, Saudi Arabia has documented 13 protected food items under the Slow Food movement’s Ark of Taste, an initiative to safeguard traditional foods at risk of disappearing. These items represent the country’s diverse culinary heritage and include:

1. Saudi Al-Kholani coffee beans
2. Mountain sidr honey
3. Al-Hisawi rice
4. Al-Samh seeds
5. Kabath (a traditional plant)
6. Truffles
7. Ghafisah (a traditional dish)
8. Salt cane
9. Al-Maghmi dates
10. Najrani Burr (Al-Samma) wheat
11. Al-Haliah dates
12. Red camels (noted for their unique traits)
13. Moringa trees

Want to eat slow? Take a bite at the Saudi fair.

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The Irish philosopher George Berkely, best known for his theory of immaterialism, once famously mused, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

What about AI-generated trees? Probably wouldn’t make a sound, but critical nonetheless for things like conservation efforts to adapt our urban forests to climate change. To that end, scientists from MIT CSAIL, Google, and Purdue University’s novel “Tree-D Fusion” system merges AI and tree-growth models with Google’s Auto Arborist data to create accurate, 3D urban trees.

The project produced the first-ever large-scale database of 600,000 environmentally aware, simulation-ready tree models across North America. This helps urban planners understand where they can build more green lungs.  Cities like Toronto get a 17.5% green canopy, while Tel Aviv gets a 17%.

“We’re bridging decades of forestry science with modern AI capabilities,” says Sara Beery, MIT EECS Assistant Professor and MIT CSAIL Principal Investigator, a co-author on a new paper about Tree-D Fusion. “This allows us to not just identify trees in cities, but to predict how they’ll grow and impact their surroundings over time. We’re not ignoring the past 30 years of work in understanding how to build these 3D synthetic models, instead, we’re using AI to make this existing knowledge more useful across a broader set of individual trees in cities around North America, and eventually the globe.”

Tree-D Fusion builds on previous urban forest monitoring efforts that used Google Street View data, but branches it forward by generating complete 3D models from single images. While earlier attempts at tree modeling were limited to specific neighborhoods, or struggled with accuracy at scale, Tree-D Fusion can create detailed models that include typically hidden features, such as the back side of trees that aren’t visible in street-view photos.

AI trees and implications for making cities cooler, safer, better maintained

The technology’s practical applications extend far beyond mere observation.

City planners could use Tree-D Fusion to one day peer into the future, anticipating where growing branches might tangle with power lines, or identifying neighborhoods where strategic tree placement could maximize cooling effects and air quality improvements. They can map how trees might respond to climate change or stop catastrophic flooding. These predictive capabilities, the team says, could change urban forest management from reactive maintenance to proactive planning.

“This high level of specificity in tree simulation has broad applications in forestry, where species and genera vary in growth, ecological roles, and climate resilience,” says Jan Stejskal, Assistant Professor at Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, who wasn’t involved in the research. “Also, it enables city planners to simulate how urban forests affect air quality, shade, and biodiversity, helping optimize tree planting for urban cooling, carbon sequestration, and habitat creation, ultimately fostering more sustainable cities.”

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (and many other places) 

The researchers took a hybrid approach to their method, using deep learning to create a 3D envelope of each tree’s shape, then using traditional procedural models to simulate realistic branch and leaf patterns based on the tree’s genus. This combo helped the model predict how trees would grow under different environmental conditions and climate scenarios such as different possible local temperatures and varying access to groundwater.

Now, as cities worldwide grapple with rising temperatures, the research offers a new window into the future of urban forests. In a collaboration with MIT’s Senseable City Lab, the Purdue University and Google team is embarking on a global study that reimagines trees as living climate shields. Their digital modeling system captures the intricate dance of shade patterns throughout the seasons, revealing how strategic urban forestry could hopefully change sweltering city blocks into more naturally cooled neighborhoods.

“Every time a street mapping vehicle passes through a city now, we’re not just taking snapshots — we’re watching these urban forests evolve in real-time,” says Beery. “This continuous monitoring creates a living digital forest that mirrors its physical counterpart, offering cities a powerful lens to observe how environmental stresses shape tree health and growth patterns across their urban landscape.”

AI-based tree modeling has emerged as an ally in the quest for environmental justice: By mapping urban tree canopy in unprecedented detail, a sister project from the Google AI for Nature team has helped uncover disparities in green space access across different socioeconomic areas. “We’re not just studying urban forests — we’re trying to cultivate more equity,” says Beery. The team is now working closely with ecologists and tree health experts to refine these models, ensuring that as cities expand their green canopies, the benefits branch out to all residents equally.

While Tree-D fusion marks some major “growth” in the field, trees can be uniquely challenging for computer vision systems. Unlike the rigid structures of buildings or vehicles that current 3D modeling techniques handle well, trees are nature’s shape-shifters — swaying in the wind, interweaving branches with neighbors, and constantly changing their form as they grow. The Tree-D fusion models are “simulation ready” in that they can estimate the shape of the trees in the future, depending on the environmental conditions.

“What makes this work exciting is how it pushes us to rethink fundamental assumptions in computer vision,” says Beery. “While 3D scene understanding techniques like photogrammetry or NERF excel at capturing static objects, trees demand new approaches that can account for their dynamic nature, where even a gentle breeze can dramatically alter their structure from moment to moment.”

The team’s approach of creating rough structural envelopes that approximate each tree’s form has proven remarkably effective, but certain issues remain unsolved. Perhaps the most vexing is the “entangled tree problem”, when neighboring trees grow into each other, their intertwined branches create a puzzle that no current AI system can fully unravel.

The scientists see their dataset as a springboard for future innovations in computer vision, and they’re already exploring applications beyond street view imagery, looking to extend their approach to platforms like iNaturalist and wildlife camera traps.

“This marks just the beginning for Tree-D Fusion,” says Jae Joong Lee, a Purdue University PhD student who developed, implemented and deployed the Tree-D-Fusion algorithm. “Together with my collaborators, I envision expanding the platform’s capabilities to a planetary scale. Our goal is to use AI-driven insights in service of natural ecosystems – supporting biodiversity, promoting global sustainability, and ultimately, benefiting the health of our entire planet.”

::Treepedia

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