NEEDLES AND LEAVES

1
NEEDLES AND LEAVES

• Which trees are the most
• numerous in gardens conifers
• or deciduous?

2
OUR PROJECT

• Our Project was to survey a number of communities
  in different locations to find out if there was
  any relationship between geographic location and
  the tree type present in gardens surveyed
• We decided our definition of a tree was a woody
  plant with one erect stem reaching a height of at
  least 4 metres
• To receive data from outside our community we set
  about using e-mail to find schools who would
  participate in our project.

3
COMMUNITY SURVEY

• Our first task was to take a field trip around
  one block in our community.
• We counted the number of trees in the front yards
  and took photos
• Back in class we recorded our data into a
  spreadsheet
• Click to view our Survey

This view shows the coniferous and broad leaf
trees on our street in front of James Gibbons
School
4
RESULTS FROM OUR COMMUNITY SURVEYWe discovered
that there was a equal distribution
5
CONCLUSIONS

• We found from our sample survey that the number
  of conifers was slightly greater than broad
  leaved trees
• We felt this was because
• conifers help as a windbreak during both summer
  and winter
• with our long winters conifers are green all year
  round while broad leaf trees are only green for a
  few months
• less problems in clearing away leaves in fall
• Are slower growing and still leave openness

6
FURTHER STUDY

• We wondered if these findings would be repeated
  in new neighborhoods and inner city communities
• Would the same conclusion hold if we compared an
  urban and a rural community in the same region
• What would we find in a region close to the sea
  as compared to a community a long way inland from
  the sea
• What would happen as we move to northern
  latitudes and more southern latitudes and at
  higher elevations

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OUR PREDICTIONS

• Our class decided that there would be a 50/50 mix
  in new neighborhoods as homeowners could chose
  from a wide selection of trees at nurseries which
  are easy to get to. Often on the edge of the city
• One student said that young families in new
  communities would go for conifers which would
  stay green all year round and would need less
  attention in the fall
• Rural communities would have more local trees in
  their yards as they are a long way from nurseries

8
LOOKING FOR MORE DATA

• Our next task was to sample another block in our
  community
• We used our more detailed survey and made contact
  with property owners to obtain additional
  information
• Then we made contact with other communities to
  provide us with more data

9
CONIFEROUS V DECIDUOUS

• While waiting for responses to our survey we
  explored the differences between Coniferous and
  Deciduous
• Starting with the collection of tree names from
  our community survey we started to create a
  database
• We also identified the conditions necessary for
  growth as climate and soil type

10
IDENTIFYING TREES

• To identify a tree we must observe a number of
  features
• We used these features to develop our database
  criteria leaves, flowers, fruits and bark
• There are often several species of trees that
  belong to the same group but they have different
  requirements. To present this information we
  compiled a Tree Web using Inspiration

11
DATA COLLECTED FROM OTHER LOCATIONS

• Our findings showed that deciduous were more
  numerous

12
GROWING REQUIREMENTS

• We visited the web sites provided and the reading
  material to discover
• Conifers are more common naturally in the
  northern and western forests
• Broad leaved trees are to be found in regions
  with temperate climate, richer soils and greater
  rainfall as found in the Great Lakes and St
  Lawrence area
• Maps can provide climatic zones to indicate the
  hardiness of an area for certain species of
  trees. The maps take into account frost free
  days, amount of precipitation, humidity and wind
  velocity

13
FORESTER PROJECTS

• Some of us got to do some extra projects
• We were able to find the locations of tree
  nurseries, flag them on a map and phone to find
  out which trees they sold the most
• We got to send an e-mail to the Government
  Forestry Department and the University Forestry
  Department to find out which trees are best
  suited to our region
• One tree nursery was on the web and we got to
  find out the prices for the different tree
  species
• We were able to develop a web page to post on our
  school site to share our Investigation of
  Coniferous and Deciduous Trees

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Wernert Susan, North American Wildlife-Trees and
  Shrubs, Readers Digest, 1982
• Calkins Carroll, Illustrated Guide to Gardening
  in Canada, Readers Digest, 1979
• Alberta Horticultural Guide, Government
  Publication
• Trees of Alberta, Alberta Energy and Natural
  Resources, 1977
• The Boreal Forest, Canadian Geographic
  Publication, 1999

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WEB SITES

• Tree Identification Guide
• Deciduous Leaf Identification Guide
• Trees and Shrubs
• Tree Hardiness Test Project

Fruit of the Rowan Tree
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• We would like to thank our teacher for allowing
  us to send our e-mail from his classroom computer
• Thanks go to John Craig at The University of
  Alberta for responding to our e-mail inquiries