The Main Desk at the Cambridge Public Library just let us know that they have given away the last of the print booklets (1000 copies!). The booklet is still available to download as a pdf from the home-page of this site. 
After leading tree walks as docents at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain this summer and fall, Florrie and I are ready to undertake a new project: The Trees of Harvard Square. 
Please sign up on our mailing list if you want to be kept up to date for future walks and the progress of the next booklet. 

The weather was perfect for our Tuesday Farmer's Market tree walk, exploring a section of Harvard Yard. We visited the American Elms and their companion Northern Red Oaks, Honey Locusts, Japanese Pagoda and Kentucky Coffee Trees, along with a few other special guest trees, such as the Littleleaf Linden, Hackberry, Black Walnut and Southern Catalpa.
Check back in to our home page for a tree walk in early September exploring a different group of Harvard's trees. These walks are taking place through the invitation of Louisa Denison, the Tuesday Harvard Farmer's Market Manager. Thank you, Louisa!

We just got notice that Eastern Bank is supporting us with a grant that will allow us to continue to make "Knowing the Trees of Cambridge" map and guide available through this website for another 3 years! Thank you, Eastern Bank. 

The guidebook is printed! It will be available at the Q&A desk in the Main Library starting around Oct. 30th.
We are encouraging supporting this and related projects through the local organization Green Cambridge that works towards a more sustainable future. www.greencambridge.org.

To celebrate the booklet's arrival, we will be conducting a live tour on Sat. Oct. 27th at 2:30pm. Meet at the Cambridge Main Library entrance. Rain date Sun. Oct. 28th, 2:30pm.

It has been a long process! Many thanks to Chris Cassidy for the design and layout of the booklet. It is now available as a link on our home page-- thanks to George Papargyris (george@innerhealth.us) and his technical expertise. The booklet will be going to print very soon. Hard copies will be available at the Cambridge Main Library towards the end of October.

Today, Chris Cassidy volunteered his time and creativity to do the layout and map design for the tour booklet. This is a huge gift and will enable us to print more copies of the guide than we expected with the award from the Awesome Foundation. Nita Sembrowich has volunteered her skills as a copy editor and Elena Saporta has offered to write the page on roots and soil community--the often unnoticed living environment of the tree. Thank you all so much!

We want to be sure  this tour STANDS OUT! P eople stop seeing things that are there all the time. That is half the problem in general: people may not even see the trees because they are always there. So we are thinking up a ways to draw attention to the labels--having "name tags" and  codes for scanning on small signs that can come and go in front of particular trees etc. We also want to add an audio portion, and of course, find out what is involved in making an app. We still feel that an actual booklet is valuable, and it would be nice to go digital, too.

We are also looking forward to presenting our project briefly at the Awesome Foundation Summit this Sunday.

We walked the tour with Helen Mirra as our prototype "guide user," and learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. Being with the trees while thinking out the details makes a big difference, and there are other rewards:  we saw a nuthatch on the basswood trunk, following its characteristic downward path: the woodpeckers claim the upward path, so they both can feed from the same tree.  Some tweaking of the tour is in order to both text and particular tree choices. This tour is developing organically and with a lot of very helpful support from friends!

We were surprised by a special resolution from the Cambridge City Council thanking us for our work on the tree tour.
Several "where-as" and a big embossed gold star and ribbon. We are very grateful for the community support.

We got a bid from a local printer. With art work, layout and printing, looks like we have enough for about 200 copies.