Guides & videos

Tree

In a nutshell: the Tree action follows a tree over time. Each tree receives a number within its parcel and a position taken at its foot; at each visit, you add a visit to it — diameter, quality, crown, status, photos. From one visit to the next, the app calculates the increment. A new tree or a new visit uses one credit; correcting a visit is free.

What the Tree action is for

A tracked tree belongs to its parcel, not to the observation in which you measured it. You can therefore find it again months or years later, from another observation, and remeasure it: each remeasurement is added to its history of visits. This is what lets you follow the growth of a future stem, the change in quality of a butt log or the decline of a tree.

Before you start: be inside a parcel

An observation belongs to a domain: the one in the banner, recognised from your position. Each measurement — a Tree, a Plot — is filed in the parcel where you make it, from its GPS position (the smallest one, if several overlap). That is why Tree and Plot can only be recorded inside a parcel of the domain; Photography and Voice note can be taken anywhere.

Outside a parcel, the Tree button is greyed out and the words "Outside a parcel" are shown below the actions. Move closer to a drawn parcel of the domain, or draw it first (see Mapping).

The tree is filed in the parcel where you are standing when you tap Tree — not where you photograph it from.

Measuring a new tree

In an open observation, tap Tree. The Trees within 20 m sheet opens: it reminds you of the parcel and of your GPS accuracy.
Tap New tree. The camera opens, stripped down: only the zoom remains available.
Frame the tree and take the shot. The photo creates the tree: its record opens, with a number assigned after the highest number in the parcel.
Go to the foot of the tree and tap 📍 GPS (block A). The position is saved immediately, without confirmation; its accuracy and the time of the reading are shown below.
Choose Broadleaf or Conifer, then the species.
Measure the diameter (block B), then fill in whatever is useful to you in the following blocks.
Tap Save. The first visit is created and one credit is deducted.

The record, block by block

The blocks collapse with a tap on their title. Cancel and Save stay at the top of the screen while you scroll through the record.

Block	What you enter there
Standing dead	switch at the top of the record. When on, it opens dead wood: Type (Tree, Snag with its estimated height, Stump) and Decay stage (bark 1 to 4 × rot 1 to 5 grid); the quality and crown blocks are hidden
Photos and Voice comment	the strip of the visit's photos, + Photo to add more; a dictated comment
A · IDENTITY	No. and link to the parcel; Number painted on the tree; Broadleaf or Conifer and the species; Position and 📍 GPS button
B · MEASUREMENTS (at 1.30 m)	Method: Caliper, Tape or Tool; the diameter or the circumference to the centimetre; Heights (optional)
C · QUALITY	A, B, C+, C−, D; Qualification key for poles and small timber
D · CROWN	Green crown / total height (> 1/3, 1/4 – 1/3, < 1/4, Declining), Crown unbalanced or cramped, CROWN STATE (A: Very vigorous to E: Dead)
G · STATUS AND OBSERVATIONS	status of the visit (Present, Borderline, Cut, Windthrow, Forgotten?); Marked, BIO (reserve), Hung up, Twin, Coppice, Future stem, Heritage, Habitat, Fallen, alive; DOMINANCE; COMMENTS

Measuring the diameter: caliper, tape or tool

A single diameter, at 1.30 m, read to the covered centimetre. Choose the method at the top of block B:

Caliper: enter the diameter; the circumference is calculated.
Tape: enter the circumference; the diameter is calculated.
Tool: the Measure button opens the app's diameter measuring tool (LiDAR, iPhone Pro); Use sends the value back to the record, where you can still correct it. See Tools.

The diameter class (PB, BM, GB, TGB) and the stage (Pole, Timber) are calculated on their own and shown below the measurement, for example "45 cm · BM · Timber". Below 7.5 cm, the tree is outside the inventory. The Heights (optional) panel takes the total height — measurable with the tool, Measure height —, the bole height and the height of the widest crown.

Quality, and the key for poles and small timber

For a tree from medium timber upwards, quality judges the butt log. For a pole or a small-timber tree, the Qualification key button guides you: tick the disqualifying stem defects and the significant defects, enter the green crown, and the app proposes a class — A · Elite, B · Recoverable, C− · Doubtful or D · Worthless. Keep this class carries it over to the record; Choose myself lets you decide.

The visit's photos

The first photo is the one that created the tree. + Photo adds more, with the same stripped-down camera; they are free. A long press on a thumbnail lets you remove it or set it as the reference photo: that is the one that will represent the tree in lists. Failing that, the tree is represented by its latest photo.

Finding a tracked tree and adding a visit

At each visit, tapping Tree first shows you the trees already tracked around you.

By proximity

The Trees within 20 m sheet lists the parcel's trees located less than 20 m from you, from the nearest to the farthest. Each card shows the tree's photo, its number, the painted-number badge, the species, the latest diameter and the date of the last visit, then the distance and direction (for example "↗ 6 m NE").

Tap the tree's card: its record opens.
Check that it is the right tree — the photo and the painted number remove any doubt.
Tap New visit. Only the identity is carried over: number, species, position. The measurements start again from empty.
Measure, fill in, then Save: one credit is deducted.

By number

At the top of the sheet, enter the tree number and tap Search: the search covers the whole parcel, with no distance condition. It is the fallback when the GPS is inaccurate, and the natural gesture in front of a tree with a painted number.

With the Compass

To reach a distant tree, tap the compass icon on its card, or Guide to this tree in its record: the Compass opens with the tree as its target, with its marker ("A14"), its direction and its distance. In the Compass, the Trees section also offers the trees of each parcel of the domain within 200 m, and a search by number. See Compass.

Only trees whose position has been taken with 📍 GPS, and which are neither cut nor windthrown, can be targeted.

When the diameter decreases or the quality changes

When remeasuring, the old value is only shown after the new entry, so as not to influence the reading; the app then shows the previous measurement and the increment since that visit.

Diameter decreased by more than one centimetre: the app asks you to measure again and confirm (Confirm the new measurement) before saving. The old measurement is never changed.
Quality different from the previous visit: choose the Reason for change — R · Earlier error or E · Event. It is mandatory.

A tree that dies, is cut or falls

Standing dead: turn on the switch at the top of the visit. The tree remains tracked, in the proximity list as in the Compass.
Cut or Windthrow: these statuses close the tree. It keeps its number, but accepts no new visit and disappears from the proximity list and the Compass. It can still be viewed by its number.

Correcting a visit

A data entry error? Open the tree's record. Under Visits, the app says: "To view or update, tap the date you want."

Tap the date of the visit to correct: it opens with its values.
Correct, then Save.

The correction is free and does not create a visit: it therefore does not count as a remeasurement for the increment. To delete a visit, swipe it to the left in the list, then confirm.

The number and the species are fixed at the first visit. To change them, tap Correct identity in block A. The position, on the other hand, can be redefined at any time with 📍 GPS: the new one replaces the old one.

What the Tree action costs

One credit per new tree and per new visit, deducted on Save.
Free: correcting a visit, adding photos, dictating a comment, viewing your trees, exporting them.

Without credit, tapping Tree shows the "Out of credit" alert, from which you can top up. The details are on the Credits page.

Where to find your trees

In the observation's detail: the Trees section lists one row per tree measured in this observation — photo, number, species, latest diameter and date, number of visits. A tap opens its record.
On the observation's map: each tree measured in the observation appears as a tree pictogram.
In the Compass: as a target, and as a pictogram with its marker on the rotating map when the observations layer is shown.
In the Excel export: the Arbres suivis sheet (tracked trees — the sheet names are in French whatever the language of the app) has one row per visit — parcel, number, species, position, method, diameter and circumference, class, quality, crown, status, comment. See Export/Import.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the Tree button greyed out? You are outside the domain's parcels: a tree is always filed in a parcel. Photography and voice notes remain available.

My tree does not appear in the list of nearby trees. Its position may never have been taken with 📍 GPS, or the GPS places you more than 20 m away. Look it up by its number.

Can I measure the same tree from another observation? Yes, that is the normal use of a remeasurement: the tree belongs to the parcel, and each visit stays attached to the observation in which it was entered.

Can I take over trees already numbered in the field? Yes: the suggested number can be changed when a tree is created. The app refuses a number already used in the parcel.

I cancelled the record: is the position lost? No. Tapping 📍 GPS is saved immediately; Cancel does not undo it.

What next

Back to observations — the other ways to enrich an observation

Survey a plot — basal area and the stand around a point
Let yourself be guided to a tree — the Compass and its targets
Export your trees to Excel