Dundas Driving Park augmented reality big historic tree tour launches Nov. 5
The Augmented Reality Tour of historic big trees in Dundas Driving Park launches Saturday, Nov. 5.
Organizer Steve Hill, a Dundas resident and ecologist at environmental consulting firm Dougan & Associates, said he'll be in the park at 10 a.m. Nov. 5, by the old burr oak, to informally introduce the tour and discuss the importance of big old urban trees.
The event will involve a visit to the trees that are included in the tour and showing people how to use the augmented reality application," Hill said.
The augmented reality tour" of historic trees in the Dundas Driving Park features virtual field guides, old photos and artwork of some of the park's biggest trees, accessed by scanning QR codes on signs in the park.
The project received $2,000 in funding from the City of Hamilton's placemaking grant program. It was also supported by Action 13, the Dundas Museum & Archives, and the staff and students at Dundas Central Public School.
The basic idea is to reconnect our community to the trees in the park using technology," Hill said, last year. The virtual field guide component will help to identify the species of trees and provide an overview of their importance to urban ecology."
Hill aims to have the tree tour application active until the end of the year. If he can acquire more funding, he'll be able to extend it into next year so he plans to apply for grants this fall.
The Former Dundas Valley Tree Keepers (DVTK) group organized a 2007 tree inventory that included Dundas Driving Park. It found eight candidate heritage trees" and nine regionally rare native trees" in the park.
Among those is a well-known large burr oak Hill estimates, based its circumference, could be more than 300 years old. The burr oak has been a common backdrop for photos for many years in the park and was named the top historical landmark" in the DVTK 2009 Heritage Tree Hunt.
The tour's Facebook hub is located at: facebook.com/groups/dundasdrivingparktrees.