As we’ve developed OpenTreeMap over the past two years, one of the most frequent questions we hear from people at conferences and other events is “How can I get a tree map for my city?” Inevitably that question is closely followed by a second – “Will this work on my smartphone?”

We have quite a few answers to the question of how to set up a tree map: download the open source code, contact us, and add your trees to an existing tree map. But for months, we had to answer the second question with the unsatisfactory response of “not yet.” Making a mobile friendly version of OpenTreeMap was one of our planned outcomes for the second stage of USDA funded R&D work.

We’ve been working hard and we are getting close to launching a smart phone version of OpenTreeMap that will make it even easier to add information about the trees in your community. Our first target for smart phones is a version for iPhones and we hope to have the PhillyTreeMap versions of the apps completed in the next few weeks. As with previous OpenTreeMap development, the mobile app code will be open source and available for download on Github.

In the meantime, we recently released a new version of the OpenTreeMap software that supports usage on a tablet. If you visit PhillyTreeMap on your iPad, you’ll now be able to explore the map and edit and add tree info using the touch screen. Want to add details about a tree? Simply step outside with your iPad, login to PhillyTreeMap, and start adding and editing info about the trees all around you.

Stay tuned for more info about the OpenTreeMap iPhone app release later this summer with an Android version shortly after that!