From Good Good Good. Thanks to Pam P.
In July 2018, a century-old red oak went live on Twitter. The account @awitnesstree, tweeting from the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, introduces itself in its bio:
WITNESSING LIFE AS A TREE IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY. VIEWS ARE MY OWN – SORT OF (DATA TRANSLATED BY SCIENTISTS AND COMMUNICATORS AT HF).
Every few days, the tree updates its 9,118 followers. On February 24 2020 it posted: “The last 2 days were extremely hot for February. When is this heatwave going to end?”
The day before, it had complained even more:
Now, after a hiatus due to COVID-related challenges, the Witness Tree is coming back online.
The tree’s messages are based on data from a suite of sensors on and around its trunk, using a real-time approach to tree monitoring pioneered by Witness Tree’s inspiration and sister project TreeWatch.net.
Led by Ghent University, TreeWatch.net set up its first tweeting tree in 2016, and currently monitors sensor data from 21 trees across Belgium, Germany, India, the Netherlands and the UK.
The sensors fitted to Harvard’s Witness Tree include a ribbon embedded in its trunk to track water flow, a spring-loaded pin pushing against its bark to monitor shrinkage and swelling and a camera to capture leaf growth. (continued)